Columbia 
of  Yesterday 


BY  ROBERT  ARROWSMITH  <m  RE- 
PRINTED FROM  THE  1926  COLUMBIAN 


izx  ICtbrts 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


FORT   NEW  AMSTERDA.H 


(NEW  YORK  )  ,  1651. 


'When  you  leape,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
"Sver'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


0  M  C  ~7  7  2.  H- 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Dl  rst  Old  York  Library 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

1754-  1897 


By 

Robert  Arrowsmith  '82 


ST.  GEORGE'S  CHAPEL 


ofir 
i 

I 


COLUMBIA 

of  YESTERDAY 


HOUGH  he  may  not  always  be  actively  conscious  of  it,  the 
student  at  Harvard,  or  Yale,  or  Princeton,  or  Virginia,  or 
William  and  Mary,  has  one  great  possession  which  we  at 
Columbia  lack.  He  passes  his  college  years  on  the  same  spot 
and  very  largely  in  the  same  environment  that  his  earliest 
predecessors  knew;  he  can  people  the  old  buildings  and 
campus  with  the  famous  alumni  of  by-gone  days;  and,  whether  he  thinks 
about  it  or  not,  the  atmosphere  and  traditions  of  the  past  are  constantly 
about  him,  molding  him  by  the  pressure  of  association.  To  the  present 
day  Columbia  student  the  spiritual  influence  of  this  visible  historic  con- 
tinuity is  denied.  He  finds  at  Morningside  modern  buildings,  a  vast  mod- 
ern educational  world  filled  with  the  busy  stir  of  modern  activities ;  and 
this  will  always  be  the  picture  he  carries  of  Columbia. 

But  his  elders  by  less  than  thirty 
years  have  a  quite  different  picture  of 
Columbia — a  much  smaller,  more  academ- 
ic, more  placid  setting,  with  a  student 
population  of  a  few  hundred  instead  of 
many  thousands,  and  an  educational  sys- 
tem in  which  the  great  development  of 
to-day  was  germinating.  Of  this  Colum- 
bia the  student  of  1926  has  sometimes  a 
vague  impression,  derived  from  a  father 
who  is  himself  an  alumnus.  Yet,  distant 
as  it  may  seem,  this  former  Columbia  was 
a  comparatively  short  stage  in  our  exist- 
ence of  a  hundred  and  seventy-two  years; 
and  at  this  writing  nine  living  alumni  re- 
call a  yet  more  primitive  Columbia.  One 
among  them,  still  in  active  life,  remem- 
bers the  College  of  1837;  and  even  then 
the  alumni  were  celebrating  the  traditions 
of  their  "venerable"  Alma  Mater.  So  our 
academic  chain,  of  which  the  present  Sen- 
ior Class  is  the  1926  link,  and  of  which 

John  A.  Stewart  of  the  Class  of  1840  still  JOHN  a.stewart 

represents  an  earlier  link,  is  a  living  or-  CLo?d\^uv?ngCa°u^nBus's 


Three 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

ganism,  in  which  each  annual  member  draws  its  collegiate  sustenance 
from  its  predecessors;  and  the  cumulative  result  is  the  present  mass  of  tra- 
dition and  practice  and  the  pride  and  loyalty  of  Columbia  men  to-day. 
It  is  our  misfortune  that  this  academic  continuity  is  not  visible  in  brick 
and  mortar;  that  is  the  penalty  we  pay  for  the  privilege  of  being  "Colum- 
bia College  in  the  City  of  New  York." 

THE  EARLIEST  BEGINNINGS:  LOTTERY  AND  FARM 

That  the  College  is  in  truth  as  well  as  in  name  identified  with  the 
City  is  due  to  the  apparently  unrelated  fact  that  in  1702  Trinity  Church 
received  a  grant  of  some  thirty-two  acres  of  land,  called  the  King's  Farm, 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  then  little  town.  This  land  extended  north  from 
the  present  Cortlandt  Street  between  the  river  and  the  Broad  Way,  which 
then  ended  near  Chambers  Street  in  a  rope  walk.  Our  Dutch  forbears, 
canny  tradesmen,  gave  little  thought  to  higher  education ;  but  their  Eng- 
lish successors  began  at  once  to  plan  for  a  college,  and  as  early  as  1703 
the  Trinity  Vestry  agreed  that  the  "Rector  &  Church  Wardens  should 
wait  upon  my  Lord  Cornbury,  the  Gov'r.,  to  know  what  part  thereof  his 
Lordp  did  design  towards  the  Colledge  which  his  Lordp  designs  to  have 
built."  Nothing  came  of  this  design,  and  no  further  actual  steps  were 
taken  until  in  1746  the  General  Assembly  authorized  "raising  the  sum  of 
£2250  by  a  Public  Lottery  for  this  Colony,  &  for  the  advancement  of 
Learning  &  towards  the  Founding  of  a  Colledge  within  the  same."  How 
real  the  need  was  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  this  period  there  were 
in  the  whole  Province  only  fifteen  "academics" — men  of  college  training. 
By  1751  these  lotteries  had  produced  £3443  18  sh.,  which  was  vested  in 
Trustees,  who  were  to  receive  proposals  from  any  of  the  cities  or  counties 
of  the  Colony  desiring  to  become  the  seat  of  the  projected  college.  At 
once  Trinity  offered  to  deed  to  them  "any  reasonable  quantity  of  the 
Church  farm,"  and  this  action  undoubtedly  determined  the  selection  of 
New  York.  So  Columbia  owes  her  origin  in  equal  parts  to  two  factors, 
one  of  which  is  now  a  crime  against  the  laws  of  the  land. 

RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM  A  FOUNDATION  STONE 

The  charter  creating  King's  College  is  notable  as  among  the  very  first, 
if  indeed  it  was  not  the  first,  of  educational  charters  to  establish  religious 
freedom  for  both  officers  and  students.  The  purpose  underlying  the 
foundation  of  the  early  American  colleges  had  been  to  provide  training 
for  the  ministry  of  a  particular  church  in  communities  where  that  church 
was  the  only  or  the  preponderating  form  of  worship.  New  York  pre- 
sented a  very  different  condition.  Dutch,  French,  Lutheran,  and  Presby- 
terian churches  were  too  strongly  entrenched  to  permit  any  exclusive 
primacy  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  charter  not  only  designated 
their  ministers  as  members  of  the  first  Board  of  Governors,  but  specific- 
ally provided  that  no  laws  should  be  passed  tending  "to  exclude  any  Person 
of  any  religious  Denomination  whatever,  from  equal  Liberty  and  Advan- 
tage of  Education,  or  from  any  of  the  Degrees,  Liberties,  Privileges,  Ben- 
efits, or  Immunities  of  the  said  College,  on  account  of  his  particular  Ten- 
ets in  Matters  of  Religion." 


Four 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 


•HB= 

OPENING  OF  KING'S  COLLEGE 

The  young  College  was  fortunate  in  finding 
for  its  first  President  a  scholar  and  thinker,  one 
of  the  notable  men  of  his  time.  The  Rev.  Samuel 
Johnson  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  selection  was  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England  at  Stratford,  Conn.  Having 
reluctantly  accepted  the  appointment,  he  threw 
himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  task  of  creating 
a  great  college,  and  conducted  it  wisely  through 
its  early  troubled  years.  He  installed  the  Col- 
lege in  its  first  home,  and  designed  the  official 
seal,  which  with  the  necessary  change  of  title 
remains  the  seal  of  the  University  to-day. 

The  legal  existence  of  the  College  dates 
from  October  31,  1754,  when  the  Royal  Charter 
was  granted.    Actually,  it  began  its  career  on 

July  17,  when  the  instruction  of  the  first  class,  of  eight  students, 
started  under  a  faculty  of  one  man,  its  first  President,  in  the  Vestry 
Room  of  the  school  house  of  Trinity  Church.  The  entrance  re- 
quirements were:  "That  they  be  able  to  read  well,  and  write 
a  good  legible  Hand;  and  that  they  be  well  versed  in  the  Five 
first  Rules  of  Arithmetic,  i.  e.  as  far  as  Division  and  Reduc- 
tion ;  And  as  to  Latin  and  Greek,  That  they  have  a  good  knowledge  in  the 
Grammars,  and  be  able  to  make  grammatical  Latin,  and  both  in  constru- 
ing and  parsing,  to  give  a  good  Account  of  two 
or  three  of  the  first  select  orations  of  Tully,  and 
of  the  first  books  of  Virgil's  Aeneid,  and  some  of 
the  first  Chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  in 
Greek."  "N.  B.  The  Charge  of  the  Tuition  is 
established  by  the  Trustees  to  be  only  25s,  for 
each  quarter." 

Dr.  Johnson  continued  to  be  the  sole  instruc- 
tor during  the  first  year.  On  the  admission  of  the 
second  class  an  assistant,  his  son  William,  shared 
the  work.  He  was  the  next  year  replaced  by 
Leonard  Cutting,  and  in  1757,  when  Dr.  Johnson 
had  retired  to  Westchester  to  escape  the  smallpox, 
Daniel  Treadwell,  a  Harvard  graduate,  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  first  professorship  established  in 
the  College,  that  of  Mathematics  and  Natural 
History. 

THE  FIRST  SITE  AND  BUILDING 

On  August  23,  1756,  the  first  stone  of  King's 
College  was  laid  by  Sir  Charles  Hardy,  Governor 
of  the  Province,  on  "the  College  Ground,  near  the 
River  on  the  North-West  Side  of  the  City.  .  .  . 
Which  being  done,  the  Governors  and  Pupils  laid 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON 


Five 


Columbia  oj  Yesterday 


THE  ORIGINAL  SITE 


•♦♦a   n» 

each  his  stone,  and  several 
other  Gentlemen."  The  cor- 
nerstone is  now  embedded 
in  the  mantelpiece  of  the 
Trustees1  Room  in  the  Li- 
brary of  the  University. 

The  land  conveyed  to  the 
College  by  Trinity  on  May 
13,  1754,  consisted  of  "all 
that  certain  piece  or  par- 
cell  of  ground  situate,  lying 
and  being  on  the  West  side 
of  the  Broadway  in  the 
West  ward  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  fronting  easter- 
ly to  Church  Street  between 
Barclay  Street  and  Murray 
Street  four  hundred  and 
forty  foot  and  from  thence 
running  westerly  between 
and  along  the  said  Barclay 
Street  and  Murray  Street 
to  the  North  River,"  which 
then  extended  to  Green- 
wich Street.  To  this  in  1772  was  added  by  grant  from  the  City,  "at 
the  Annual  Rent  of  One  Pepper  Corn,"  all  the  waste  ground  from 
the  rear  of  the  College  property  to  the  low  water  mark,  and  from  thence 
two  hundred  feet  into  the  River. 

At  the  time  of  the  completion  of  the  building  in  1760,  the  site 
was  described  as  consisting  of  a  high  gravelly  soil  surrounded  by 
land  entirely  unencumbered  by  buildings  and  with  an  unobstructed 
view  over  Hudson's  River,  the  Narrows  and  Staten  Island.  This  de- 
scription is  born  out  by  the  so-called  Palm  Tree  Print  in  the  Colum- 
biana Collection,  which 
was  "drawn  on  the  spot 
by  Captain  Thomas  How- 
dell,  of  the  Royall  Artil- 
lery." The  sketch  was 
made  from  a  spot  appar- 
ently half  a  mile  north 
of  the  College,  and  the  in- 
tervening space  is  shown 
entirely  free  from  build- 
ings, while  the  spires 
of  Trinity,  the  French 
Church,  and  City  Hall  are 
the  palm  tree  print  seen  to  the  south.  To-day, 

the  morning  shadow  of  the  Woolworth  spire,  sweeps  over  the  site 
on  which  the  College  passed  the  first  century  of  its  existence  with- 

Sfx 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 
•HB==   ==»» 

out  falling  on  a  single  reminder  of  its  occupancy.  The  College  site  has 
long  since  been  swallowed  up  by  trade,  and  the  very  memory  of  it  has 
almost  vanished  from  the  collegiate  as  well  as  from  the  popular  mind. 
However,  it  still  retains  a  very  intimate  relation  with  the  University,  for 
all  this  tract,  with  the  exception  of  the  north  side  of  Park  Place  between 
Church  Street  and  West  Broadway — the  old  College  front — remains  the 
property  of  Columbia,  and  supplies  a  large  part  of  the  present  University 
income. 

The  College  grounds  divided  Robinson  Street,  later  Park  Place,  which 
was  not  cut  through  until  the  site  was  abandoned  in  1857.  The  building 
faced  south  in  a  shaded  enclosure  surrounded  by  a  fence.  It  contained 
apartments  for  professors  and  students,  as  well  as  the  recitation  rooms, 
College  Hall,  and  Library.  On  the  north  side  also  the  President's  garden 
appears  to  have  been  laid  out,  a  portion  being  assigned  to  the  steward 
for  the  use  of  his  larder.  The  College  pump  seems  to  have  been  popular 
with  the  neighbors,  for  the  records  speak  of  the  annoyance  caused  by 
its  too  liberal  use  by  outsiders. 

The  original  building,  with  changes  and  additions  from  time  to  time, 
served  the  College  for  a  century.  The  symbolic  crown,  which  surmounted 
its  graceful  cupola,  was  of  course  removed  when  the  royal  King's  gave 
way  to  the  democratic  Columbia.  -  The  first  and  only  important  structural 
change  was  made  in  1818,  when  a  large  wing  was  added  at  each  end  for 
professors'  homes.  The  internal  arrangements  must  also  have  undergone 
alterations,  but  the  only 
definite  statement  in  re- 
gard to  them  is  the  de- 
scription contained  in  the 
reminiscences  of  G.  C. 
Farrar  '48,  published  ten 
years  since  in  the  Alum- 
ni News.  In  the  centre 
was  the  entrance  to  the 
chapel  and  the  various 
classrooms,  together 
with  accommodation  for 
the  President.  "The 
chapel  was  a  large  room. 
Along    the    north    end  king  s  college  in  1770 

stretched  a  long  raised 

platform  occupied  by  the  professors,  with  the  President  seated  in  the 
middle,  every  morning  for  prayers.  At  each  side  were  seats  for  the  four 
classes,  Senior  and  Junior  on  one  side,  Sophomore  and  Freshman  on  the 
other,  all  facing  toward  the  centre.  In  this  centre  was  a  raised  platform 
about  twelve  feet  square,  and  elevated  about  three  feet  from  the  ground, 
so  that  whoever  occupied  that  place  was  in  full  view  of  all  and  far  enough 
removed  from  the  two  sides  to  render  prompting  or  assistance  from  any 
friendly  quarter  impossible.  Every  morning  at  the  conclusion  of  chapel 
service  one  student  was  called  upon  to  deliver  a  recitation  for  the  approba- 
tion of  the  president  and  professors.    At  the  conclusion  the  classes  marched 


Seven 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

.♦  m+ 

out  in  succession,  Seniors  first  and  Freshmen  last.  The  college  library  was 
located  upstairs,  over  the  chapel." 

The  venerable  edifice  disappeared  in  1857,  when  Park  Place  was  ex- 
tended through  its  campus,  and  was  replaced  by  modern  buildings  which 
in  turn  have  given  place  to  still  newer  ones. 

COOPER  AND  HAMILTON 

President  Johnson  resigned  in  1763  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev. 
Myles  Cooper,  a  brilliant  young  scholar  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford.  Per- 
haps because  of  his  youthfulness  (he  was  only  twenty-six),  the  Governors 
just  before  he  assumed  office  ordered:  "That  no  Woman,  on  any  pretence 
whatever,  (except  a  cook)  be  allowed  to  reside  within  the  College  for  the 
future,  and  that  those  who  are  now  there  be  removed  as  soon  as  conven- 
iently may  be."  The  chief  events  of  his  administration  are  the  appointment 
of  the  first  librarian,  the  institution  of  the  first  Medical  School  in  New 
York  in  1767,  and  the  establishment  of  the  first  public  course  in  Law 
in  1774. 

Cooper's  aggressive  Toryism  brought  him  twice  into  contact  with  one 
of  the  College  students,  once  as  an  unknown  opponent,  once  as  a  savior. 
Alexander  Hamilton,  whom  the  President  of  the  New  Jersey  College  at 
Princeton  had  refused  to  admit  as  a  special  student,  was  more  liberally 
received  by  Cooper,  and  was  a  student  in  King's  College  at  the  approach 
of  the  Revolution.  Though  but  seventeen  years  old,  Hamilton,  who  has 
been  called  the  most  consummate  intellect  the  Western  Hemisphere  has 
produced,  worsted  the  President  in  political  controversy,  and  on  May  1.0, 
1775,  held  a  threatening  mob  at  bay  from  the  College  steps  until  Cooper 
could  escape  from  the  rear  of  the  building  and  seek  refuge  with  sympa- 
thizers. If  Hamilton  had  gone  to  Princeton,  Cooper  would  have  been 
lynched. 

With  Cooper's  flight  the  existence  of  King's  College  practically  ended. 
In  April,  1776,  the  building  was  taken  over  by  the  military,  the  students 
were  dispersed,  the  apparatus  and  library  were  stored  in  the  City  Hall 
and  eventually  lost,  and  the  corporation  itself  was  kept  alive  only  by  oc- 
casional meetings  of  the  Governors.  But  its  brief  career  of  twenty-two 
years  had  firmly  established  higher  education  in  the  City,  and  had  sent 
out  upwards  of  a  hundred  picked  graduates,  whose  part  in  public  affairs 
before,  during,  and  after  the  war  was  of  vital  moment  to  the  nation. 

STUDENT  DISCIPLINE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 
The  government  of  King's  College  was  extremely  paternal.  The  re- 
pressive regulations  under  which  the  students  lived  would  hardly  meet 
with  either  favor  or  obedience  to-day.  Nor  did  they  invariably  do  so  even 
at  a  time  when  they  represented  little  more  than  the  now  disappearing 
discipline  of  the  home  transferred  to  the  college  in  loco  parentis.  What 
they  could  do,  and  still  more  what  they  could  not  do,  we  find  pictured  in 
the  "Laws  and  Orders  of  the  College  of  New  York,  adopted  June  5,  1755." 
The  first  of  these  laws  naturally  have  to  do  with  Publick  Worship.  "Those 
that  absent  themselves  shall  for  every  offence  be  fined  twopence  and  one 
penny  for  not  coming  in  due  season.  Every  pupil  shall  behave  with  the 
utmost  decency  at  Publick  Worship,  and  whoever  is  proved  guilty  of 


Eight 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

any  profane  or  indecent  behavior  as  talking,  laughing,  justling,  winking, 
etc.,  he  shall  submit  to  an  admonition  for  the  first  offence  and  to  an  Ex- 
traordinary Exercise  for  the  second  and  if  Obstinate,  expelled. 

"If  any  Pupil  shall  be  convicted  of  Drunkenness,  Fornication,  Lying, 
Theft,  Swearing,  cursing  or  any  other  scandalous  immorality  he  shall  sub- 
mit to  open  admonition  and  confession  of  his  fault  or  be  expelled  if  his 
Crime  is  judged  too  heinous  for  any  lesser  Punishment  and  especially  if 
he  be  contumacious. 

"None  of  the  pupils  shall  keep  company  with  any  persons  of  known 
scandalous  behavior  and  such  as  may  endanger  either  their  Principles  or 
Morals.  None  of  the  Pupils  shall  fisrht  Cocks,  play  at  Cards,  Dice  or  any 
unlawful  game  upon  penalty  of  being  fined  not  exceeding  Five  Shillings 
for  the  first  offence.  If  any  Pupil  shall  be  convicted  of  fighting,  maiming, 
slandering  or  greviously  abusing  any  person  he  shall  be  fined  Three 
shillings  and  if  he  repeats  his  offence  he  shall  be  further  punished  by 
fine,  admonition,  suspension  or  expulsion  according  to  the  aggravation  of 
his  fault,  especially  if  contumacious.  If  any  Pupil  be  convicted  of  any 
Dilapidations  of  the  College  or  any  injury  done  to  the  Estates,  goods  or 
persons  of  any  others  he  shall  be  obliged  to  make  good  all  damages. 

"Every  Duoil  shall  treat  all  his  suneriours  and  especially  the  au- 
thority of  the  College  with  all  duty  and  respect  by  all  such  good  manners 
and  behaviour  as  common  decency  and  good  breeding  require,  such  as  ris- 
ing, standing,  uncovering  the  head,  preserving  a  proper  distance  and  using 
the  most  respectful  language,  etc.,  and  he  that  behaves  otherwise  shall 
be  punished  at  the  discretion  of  the  President  and  fellows  or  Governors 
according  to  the  nature  and  degree  of  his  ill  behaviour. 

"None  of  the  pupils  shall  be  absent  from  their  chambers  or  neglect 
their  studies  without  leave  obtained  from  the  President  or  their  respec- 
tive Tutors,  except  for  Morning  and  Evening  Prayers  and  recitation  and 
half-an-hour  for  Breakfast  and  an  hour  and  a  half  after  Dinner  and  from 
Evening  Prayer  till  nine  of  the  clock  at  night.  No  student  shall  go  out 
of  town  without  the  President's  or  his  Tutor's  leave,  unless  at  the  stated 
Vacation  upon  penalty  of  Five  Shillings  and  for  repeating  his  fault  he 
shall  be  rusticated,  and  if  contumacious,  expelled.  N.  B.  The  stated  vaca- 
tions are  a  month  after  commencement,  one  week  at  Michaelmass  and  a 
fortnight  at  Christmas  and  Easter  Week,  i.  e.  from  Good  Fryday  till  the 
Fryday  following,  which  last  being  so  near  Commencement  is  to  be  consid- 
ered only  a  Vacation  from  Exercises  but  not  from  the  College  or  Dayly 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayers,  and  so  does  not  come  within  the  last  pro- 
hibition. 

"All  the  fines  shall  be  paid  to  the  Treasurer  of  the  College  to  be  laid 
out  in  books  and  disposed  of  as  a  reward  to  such  of  the  schollars  as  shall 
excell  in  the  course  of  their  studies." 

Further  regulations,  added  from  time  to  time  as  occasion  arose,  in- 
clude: 

"No  Student,  after  the  calling  of  morning  roll,  shall  leave  the  Col- 
lege, or  be  found  in  the  chamber  of  another,  or  leave  his  own,  under  the 
penalty  of  one  shilling  for  each  offence,  until  six  in  the  evening.  A  roll 
shall  be  kept  of  such  students  as  usually  sleep  in  the  College,  which  shall 


Nine 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 
■HI  8f*- 

be  called  over  every  night  at  the  hour  of  ten  o'clock;  at  which  hour  also 
the  gate  shall  be  locked ;  and  if  any  Student  shall  not  answer  his  name, 
he  shall  be  fined  five  shillings.  If  any  Student  shall  be  guilty  of  prophane 
cursing;  or  swearing;  or  be  intoxicated  with  liquor;  or  shall  be  concerned 
in  any  riot;  or  shall  strike  a  fellow  Student,  or  other  person;  or  shall  break 
through  or  pass  over,  the  College  walls ;  or  shall  procure  a  private  key 
for  any  door  therein ;  or  play  at  cards,  dice  or  any  unlawful  game ;  or  be 
guilty  of  telling  a  mean  or  wilful  falsehood;  for  the  first  time,  he  shall 
be  fined,"  etc. 

THE  BLACK  BOOK 
How  the  "heinous"  offences  against  these  regulations  were  punished 
may  be  seen  in  an  original  manuscript  Book  of  Misdemeanours,  or  Black 
Book,  preserved  in  Columbiana.  Its  first  entry,  under  date  of  January 
1771,  tells  how  "Shreeve,  Abrahams,  Bogert,  were  confined  to  College 
for  taking  Teacups  out  of  another  student's  room,  and  denying  that  they 
knew  anything  of  them. — N.  B.  Shreeve  the  most  culpable."  The  same 
entry  records  that  Skene  was  "reprimanded  publicly  at  a  Visitation  for 
having  come  thro'  a  hole  in  the  College  fence,  at  12  o'Clock  at  night." 
Skene  appears  to  have  been  given  to  night  excursions,  for  in  June  he  is 
"suspended  by  the  President  for  coming  over  the  College  fence  at  V2  Past 
11.  o'Clock  last  Night,"  the  hole  evidently  having  been  closed  between  his 
breaks  for  liberty.  Bogert,  Shreeve,  and  Ricketts  appear  in  various  en- 
tries as  confined,  suspended  or  degraded;  but  eventually  all  turned  out 
well,  for  in  consideration  of  "their  Regular  &  dutiful  Behaviour,  they  had 
their  Degradation  removed,  and  were  restored  to  their  former  Classes." 
On  April  28  we  discover  an  offence  not  specifically  provided  for  in  the 
otherwise  minute  regulations  against  crime.  "Robinson  spit  in  the  Cook's 
Face,  kicked,  &  otherwise  abused  him ;  of  which  he — the  Cook — com- 
plained to  the  Governors  as  they  came  out  of  Chapel."  This  apparently 
caused  the  Governors  some  perturbation ;  but  when  the  Committee  met 
on  May  1,  to  examine  into  the  Cook's  complaint,  Robinson  absented  him- 
self from  College,  without  leave,  and  the  Committee  was  obliged  to  meet 
again  on  May  4  "on  the  same  Business,  when  Robinson,  for  insulting  & 
ill-treating  the  Cook,  &  also  for  neglect  of  his  Collegiate  exercises,  of 
which  the  Professors  complained,  was  confined  by  the  Committee,  after 
being  publickly  reprimanded,  &  ordered  not  to  go  beyond  the  College 
Fence  for  the  Space  of  two  Weeks ;  also  to  perform  such  Exercises  as  the 
President  should  assign  him,  besides  attending  his  Class  at  Recitation, 
&c  as  usual."  Again,  on  July  16,  Robinson  and  Ricketts  were  "degraded 
by  the  Board  of  Governors,  for  divers  Irregularities  committed  by  them 
on  the  afternoon  of  last  Commencement  Day,  were  ordered  also  to  be 
confined  to  College  for  two  Weeks,  &  at  the  Expiration  of  their  Degrada- 
tion, to  make  a  public  Confession  in  the  College  Hall  before  the  Com- 
mittee of  Visitation,"  but  toward  the  end  of  August  Robinson  and  his 
companions  in  crime  were  restored — "having  all  behaved  very  regularly 
since  their  Degradation  &  punctually  complied  with  every  Part  of  the 
Order  of  the  Board  of  Governors  respecting  them";  and  Robinson's  name 
does  not  appear  again.  A  hardened  offender  was  Douglas,  who  "for 
stealing  8  Sheets  of  paper  &  a  Pen-knife,  was  reprimanded  in  the  College 


Ten 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

Hall  before  all  the  Students.  &  after  having  his  Gown  stripped  off  by  the 
Porter,  he  was  ordered  to  kneel  down  &  read  a  Paper  containing  an  Ac- 
knowledgment of  his  Crime,  expressing  much  sorrow  for  it,  &  promising 
Amendment  for  the  future — He  was  then  forbidden  to  wear  his  Gown  or 
Cap  for  one  Week."  The  severest  punishment  recorded  fell  to  Jauncey, 
who,  after  being  suspended  by  the  President  in  August  for  "ye  most  in- 
solent personal  Treatment,  on  September  2  by  ye  Board  of  Governors, 
expelled. " 

Other  similar  penalties  were  incurred  by  Remsen,  "for  beating  Nich- 
olls  3,  &  absenting  himself  from  College  under  pretence  of  Sickness,  for 
several  days,  tho  it  was  proved  he  had  been  fishing  on  some  of  those 
days;"  by  Rapalje,  for  stealing  Moncrieff's  Stockings;  by  Davan,  who 
seems  to  have  been  a  frequent  sinner,  "for  having  stolen  a  very  large 
Quantity  of  vine  out  of  the  president's  garret" ;  by  Nicoll  Imus  "for  ill- 
using  Mr.  Harpuj:,  by  calling  Names  in  the  Dark";  again  by  Davan  "for 
refusing  to  open  his  Door  when  repeatedly  called  upon  by  the  President, 
and  causing  four  Doors  to  be  broke  open  before  he  could  be  laid  hold  of. 
N.  B.  found,  at  last  in  the  Room  opposite  to  his  own,  where  he  had  hid 
himself,  having  opened  the  Door  with  a  false  key,  and  hid  himself  in  one 
of  the  Studies";  by  Nicholls  3,  who  had  gone  over  the  College  Fence 
the  preceding  Tuesday,  between  the  hours  of  3  &  4  P.  M.  to  bathe. 

These  entries  are  quoted  in  such  detail  because,  better  than  any  other 
document  of  the  period  which  we  possess,  they  cast  light  on  the  spirit  of 
the  time  and  on  the  life  of  the  college  boy.  The  last  entry  in  the  Black 
Book  bears  the  date  August  4,  1775,  and  so  is  almost  the  final  record  of 
old  King's. 

KING'S  BECOMES  COLUMBIA 

The  independence  of  the  United  States  having  been  assured  by  the 
Treaty  of  1783,  in  the  negotiation  of  which  John  Jay  of  the  Class  of  1764 
took  the  leading  part,  the  rights  and  powers  hitherto  vested  in  the  corpora- 
tion of  King's  College  were  transferred  to  the  newly  created  Regents  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  under  their  auspices  the 
institution  was  reopened  in  1784  with  the  new  name  of  Columbia — a  word 
and  name  then  for  the  first  time  recognized  anywhere  in  law  and  history. 
At  the  entrance  examinations  held  in  May,  De  Witt  Clinton  entered  the 
Junior  Class,  the  first  student  of  Columbia  College,  and  one  of  its  most 
illustrious  alumni.  The  first  Commencement  was  held  on  April  11,  1786, 
at  St.  Paul's  Church,  in  the  presence  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  the 
State  Legislature,  which  suspended  public  business  for  the  occasion. 

Government  by  the  Regents  proved  unsatisfactory,  and  lasted  only 
until  April  13,  1787,  when  a  revised  charter  was  issued  to  the  "Trustees 
of  Columbia  College  in  the  City  of  New  York,"  our  present  corporate 
title,  making  the  governing  board  a  self-perpetuating  body  of  twenty-four. 

COLUMBIA'S  FIRST  PRESIDENT 

On  May  21,  William  Samuel  Johnson,  Yale,  1774,  a  son  of  the  first 
President  of  King's  College,  was  made  the  first  President  of  Columbia 
College  and,  so  far  as  is  known,  the  first  non-cleric  president  of  any  col- 
lege in  the  English-speaking  world.    Considering  the  manner  and  the 


Eleven 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

time  of  our  origin,  we  have  had  an  exceptional  proportion  of  laymen 
among  our  presidents,  one-half  of  the  whole  number — W.  S.  Johnson, 
Nathaniel  Moore,  Duer,  King,  Low,  and  Butler — while  Barnard,  although 
an  ordained  clergyman,  was  in  fact  more  lay  than  cleric. 

President  Johnson  was  a  distinguished  lawyer,  who  had  been  en- 
trusted with  various  important  political  missions,  and  shortly  after  his 
election  to  the  Presidency  was  chosen  United  States  Senator  from  Con- 
necticut, which  office  he  combined  with  his  College  functions  until  the  re- 
moval of  Congress  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia. 

In  November,  1787,  the  number  of  students  was  thirty-nine,  of  whom 
only  five  lived  in  the  College  building;  there  was  scarcely  any  library; 
and  the  total  income  of  the  College  was  £1331.  The  Commencement  of 
1789  was  memorable  for  the  presence  of  President  Washington,  to  whom 
the  oath  of  office  had  been  administered  a  month  previously  by  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  State  of  New  York,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  of  the  Class  of  1765, 
King's  College. 

Under  President  Johnson  the  rehabilitation  of  the  College  proceeded 
steadily.  The  first  plan  for  a  modern  university  ever  made  by  anybody 
was  that  submitted  to  our  Trustees  in  1784  by  the  committee  of  which 
Alexander  Hamilton  was  a  member.  Money  grants  were  obtained  from 
the  Legislature  which  made  possible  the  appointment  of  a  number  of 
professors,  chief  among  them  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill  in  Natural  Sciences, 
and  James  Kent,  later  Chancellor  of  the  State,  whose  honored  name  is 
carved  on  the  building  of  the  Law  School  of  which  he  was  the  forerunner. 

THE  SECOND  AND  THIRD  PRESIDENTS 

Following  Dr.  Johnson's  resignation  in  1800,  the  office  of  President 
remained  vacant  until  May  of  the  next  year,  when  Rev.  Charles  H. 
Wharton  of  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  was  elected.  He  appears  never  to 
have  performed  any  duties,  and  resigned  in  December,  1801.  On  the  last 
day  of  that  year  Benjamin  Moore  of  the  Class  of  1768,  Bishop  of  New 
York,  was  made  President  at  a  salary  of  £100.  At  this  time  the  whole 
revenue  of  the  College  amounted  to  £1570,  and  the  stated  salaries  to  £1477, 
leaving  a  balance  of  ninety-three  pounds  for  contingent  expenses  and  re- 
pairs— an  illuminating  instance  of  the  constant  financial  pressure  to  which 
the  College  was  subject  during  the  first  century  of  its  existence.  The  ces- 
sion by  the  Regents  to  the  College  of  certain  lands  at  Lake  George,  Ticon- 
deroga,  and  Crown  Point  enabled  the  Trustees  to  make  some  additions 
to  the  building;  but  the  sale  of  all  this  property  produced  less  than  $12,- 
000.  The  Lake  George  land  was  sold  to  James  Caldwell  of  Albany,  whence 
Caldwell's  Landing  probably  derives  its  name.  The  term  of  President 
Moore  was  marked  by  radical  advance  in  the  requirements  and  standard 
of  instruction,  by  the  founding  of  the  Philolexian  and  Peitho^gian  So- 
cieties, and  by  the  obtaining  in  1810  of  a  revised  charter,  which  gave 
the  College  greater  freedom  of  action. 

PRESIDENT  HARRIS— A  LIVELY  COMMENCEMENT 

Bishop  Moore  resigned  the  Presidency  in  1811,  and  was  succeeded 
by  the  Rev.  William  Harris,  a  Harvard  graduate  of  1786.    At  the  same 


Twelve 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

•♦48    

time,  the  Rev.  John  M.  Mason,  of  the  Class  of  1789  Columbia  College,  be- 
came the  first,  and  until  recent  years  the  only,  Provost  of  Columbia. 
Dr.  Harris'  introduction  to  his  new  office  was  somewhat  stormy,  being 
ushered  in  by  the  famous  "Riotous  Commencement"  in  Trinity  Church 
on  August  7,  1811.  John  B.  Stevenson  of  the  graduating  class  was  debarred 
from  receiving  his  degree  because  of  his  refusal  to  accept  changes  re- 
quired by  the  professors  in  his  Commencement  oration.  His  appeal  to 
the  audience  was  sustained  by  a  number  of  sympathizers,  inflammatory 
speeches  were  made,  and  the  exercises  were  broken  up  in  confusion. 
Several  of  the  ring-leaders  were  arrested,  tried  before  Mayor  De  Witt 
Clinton,  and  after  a  scathing  denunciation  were  fined.  The  affair  is 
described  in  detail  in  "The  Trial  of  Gulian  C.  Verplank,  Hugh  Maxwell, 
and  Others,"  published  ten  years  later,  when  the  bitterness  engendered 
by  the  trial  still  showed  no  signs  of  abatement. 

EARLY  MOVING  PLANS 

In  response  to  an  appeal  by  the  Trustees  the  Legislature  granted 
to  the  College  the  Elgin  Botanical  Gardens  "within  a  few  miles  of  the 
City,"  which  had  been  established  in  the  interest  of  medical  science  by 
Dr.  David  Hosack,  former  Professor  of  Botany  and  Materia  Medica  in  the 
College,  and  conveyed  by  him  to  the  State.  This  tract,  extending  from 
Fifth  Avenue  to  within  a  hundred  feet  of  Sixth  Avenue  and  from  Forty- 
seventh  to  Fifty-first  Street,  was  granted  with  the  express  condition  that 
the  College  should  be  removed  to  it  within  twelve  years,  a  restriction 
which  was  repealed  in  a  few  years.  The  land  has  never  been  used  for 
College  buildings,  but  it  remains  in  its 
entirety  the  property  of  Columbia,  and 
now  constitutes  a  very  valuable  posses- 
sion. 

Various  schemes  for  the  removal  of 
the  College  were  discussed  during  this 
period,  among  them  a  project  of  consol- 
idation with  Washington  College  on 
Staten  Island.  All  these  plans  fell 
through,  and  the  Trustees  turned  their 
attention  to  repairing  and  enlarging  their 
present  quarters.  The  plan  finally  adopt- 
ed in  1817,  "in  order  to  meet  the  present 
exigencies  of  the  College,  will  be,  to  erect 
at  each  extremity  of  the  old  building,  a 
block  or  wing  of  about  fifty  feet  square; 
each  wing  to  contain  two  houses  for  Pro- 
fessors, facing  the  College  Green,  and 
projecting  beyond  the  front  of  the  old 
building,  so  as  to  be  on  a  line  with  the 
fronts  of  the  houses  on  the  north  side  of 
Park    Place."      The    building    thus     al-         Columbia  college  in  isso 

tered  is  shown   for  the   first   time  on 

the  Commencement  card  of  1818,  and  is  also  depicted  on  a  Staffordshire 
blue  plate  of  the  same  year,  now  in  Columbiana.    The  Library  was  put 


Thirteen 


Columbia  uj  Yesterday 

 »» 

under  the  charge  of  the  junior  professor,  and  was  open  from  twelve  to 
two  o'clock  every  Saturday  for  the  delivery  of  books  to  "the  Trustees, 
the  President  and  Professors,  the  students  of  the  Senior  and  Junior 
Classes,  and  such  of  the  graduates  of  the  College,  residing  in  the  City 
of  New  York,  as  shall  contribute  toward  the  expenses  of  the  Library  the 
sum  of  four  dollars  annually."  The  tuition  fee  was  $80.  A  building 
for  the  Grammar  School  was  erected  in  1829  and  in  1830  the  School 
was  placed  under  the  charge  of  Professor  Charles  Anthon  as  Rector. 
Under  him  the  Grammar  School  became  the  most  noted  school  in  the 
City,  and  a  wealth  of  tradition  attached  itself  to  his  striking  personality. 
He  retired  from  the  Rectorship  in  1864,  since  which  the  Columbia  Gram- 
mar School,  while  retaining  its  old  name,  has  had  no  official  connection 
with  the  College.  Not  least  important  among  the  events  of  this  period 
was  the  establishment  in  1825  of  the  present  College  Alumni  Association 
under  the  title  of  The  Society  of  the  Alumni  of  Columbia  College.  Its 
rise  marks  the  beginning  of  organized  alumni  participation  in  the  inter- 
nal affairs  of  the  College,  a  partnership  which  after  a  hundred  years  has 
proved  itself  an  indispensable  element  in  the  progress  of  the  University. 

PRESIDENTS  DUER  AND  MOORE 

President  Harris  died  in  1829  and  was  succeeded  by  William  Alex- 
ander Duer,  the  second  lay  President.  His  incumbency  was  marked  by 
anxiety  but  also  by  activity.  The  opening  of  the  University  of  the  City 
of  New  York  in  1832  caused  a  serious  falling  off  in  the  number  of  stu- 
dents which  extended  over  several  years,  while  expenses  and  debt  in- 
creased. The  semi-centennial  celebration  of  the  granting  of  the  Charter 
of  1787  took  place  on  April  13,  1837,  with  the  cooperation  of  Trustees, 
alumni,  and  students.  At  the  end  of  the  following  year  the  President 
reported  that  the  number  of  students  was  greater  than  ever  before,  with 
an  attendance  of  156. 

Illness  caused  the  resignation  of  President  Duer  in  1842.  His  suc- 
cessor was  Nathaniel  F.  Moore,  a  layman,  of  the  Class  of  1802,  who  had 
been  a  professor  of  Latin  and  Greek  for  many  years.  By  this  time  the 
student  body  had  shrunk  to  107,  and  the  College  had  an  income  of  $23,- 
998,  expenditures  of  $22,865,  and  a  debt  of  $58,050.  Owing  to  the  finan- 
cial condition  of  the  institution,  the  President's  salary  was  reduced  to 
$1400,  that  of  each  of  the  four  principal  professors  to  $1200,  and  that 
of  the  Treasurer  to  $400,  while  the  expenses  of  the  Library  were  not  to 
exceed  $200,  and  prize  medals  were  abolished. 

President  Moore  was  one  of  the  earliest  amateur  photographers  in 
New  York.  It  is  related  that  he  was  accustomed  to  appear  at  dinners 
wearing  cotton  gloves  to  conceal  the  stains  of  photographic  chemicals. 
In  the  Columbiana  Collection  may  be  seen  several  specimens  of  his  art, 
still  in  good  condition,  among  them  a  remarkably  fine  self-portrait,  made 
and  printed  by  Dr.  Moore  on  paper  prepared  by  himself. 

PRESIDENT  KING— THE  COLLEGE;    MOVES  TO  ITS  SECOND  HOME 

He  retired  in  1849,  and  was  succeeded  by  Charles  King,  fourth  in  the 
list  of  non-cleric  Presidents.  His  advent  infused  the  College  with  new  life. 


Fourteen 


•♦4S= 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 


Important  changes  in  the  educational  system  were  suggested  and  in  some 
cases  carried  into  effect.  'The  expediency  of  engrafting  upon  the  foun- 
dation of  this  College  a  scheme  of 


1 

1 

Murray       Sir  tt\ 

io 

i 
f 

Robinson  5treei 

ParK  Place 

a 

Campus 

'Vvfolworth 
J  -Building 
1  Is  Now 

1  on 

[This  5ite 

d 

<3 

0 

L 

Bartlw  itreet 

THE  COLLEGE  SITE  BEFORE  THE  OPENING  OF 
PARK  PLACE 


University  Professorships  and  lec- 
tures in  the  higher  departments  of 
Letters  and  Science/'  laid  before 
the  Trustees  by  President  King  in 
1851,  waited  forty  years  longer  for 
'  recognition;  but  the  renewed  pro- 
ject of  a  removal  reached  the  stage 
of  accomplishment  during  his  ad- 
ministration. Plans  were  develop- 
ed in  1855  for  the  erection  of  build- 
ings on  the  Botanic  Garden  site, 
but  were  not  carried  out,  as  the 
committee  in  charge  in  1856  pur- 
chased of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asy- 
lum a  part  of  the  block  between  49th  and  50th  Streets,  Madison  and 
Fourth  Avenues.  The  existing  buildings  were  put  in  order  for  "tempo-  /\ 
rary"  occupancy,  which  lasted  forty  years,  and  the  scheme  for  utilizing 

the  Botanic  Garden  was 
eventually  abandoned.  A 
part  of  the  site  of  the 
College  buildings  on  Park 
Place  was  sold  in  Janu- 
ary, 1857.  In  May  the 
College  without  much  cer- 
emony left  the  old  home 
and  occupied  the  new,  and 
the  second  chapter  of  Co- 
lumbia history  was  closed. 

The  Evening  Post  of 
May  11  notes  that  "the 
old   College   building  in 
Park  Place  is  now  entire- 
ly destroyed.  The  new  lo- 
cation of  the  College  is  a 
delightful  one,  and  undesirable  only  on  account  of  the  distance  uptown. 
The  old  Asylum  buildings  have  been  altered  somewhat,  repaired  and 
greatly  improved.   The  east  wing  is  occupied  by  the  Chapel  and  the  ex- 
tensive Library  of  the  College;  the  centre  for  the  recitation  rooms  and 
the  residence  of  President  King,  and  the  west  wing  for  the  residences 
of  some  of  the  College  Professors.  A  beautiful  lawn  slopes  from  the  Col- 
lege southward  down  to  Forty-ninth  Street,  and  is  ornamented  by 
some  fine  old  trees.  .  .  .  That  part  of  the  City  is  still  quite  new. 
Potter's  Field  is  within  a  stone's  throw,  and  we  are  sorry  to  say  the 
ends  of  coffins,  filled  with  the  bones  of  the  unknown  dead,  are  still  to  be 
seen  protruding  from  the  bank  of  earth  left  by  the  cutting  through  of  the 


49TH   STREET  ABOUT  1885 


Fifteen 


Columbia  oj  Yesterday 

■hi   »» 

Fourth  Avenue.  The  College  will  probably  remain  in  its  present  location 
only  six  or  eight  years."  So  remote  was  the  site  that  the  President  and 
Treasurer  were  authorized  to  confer  with  the  Harlem  and  other  Rail  Road 
Companies,  and  with  the  proprietors  of  any  lines  of  omnibuses,  with  a 
view  to  the  establishment  of  suitable  facilities  for  the  conveyance  of 
students  and  others  to  and  from  the  College.  Madison  Avenue  was  then 
not  opened  above  49th  Street,  and  not  paved  above  42d  Street. 

With  the  removal  of  the  College  began  the  period  of  real  development 
on  modern  lines.  It  was  ushered  in  by  a  far-sighted  statute  adopted  in 
July,  1857,  which  divided  the  course,  after  the  completion  of  the  Junior 
year,  into  three  departments — Letters,  Science  and  Jurisprudence — any 
one  of  which  might  be  elected  by  members  of  the  Senior  class.  The  Fac- 
ulty was  increased,  some  of  the  Professorships  were  subdivided,  and  the 
course  was  greatly  strengthened.  As  a  result,  the  fall  term  opened  with 
a  larger  attendance  than  ever  before,  one  hundred  and  fifty-four.  The 
alumni  were  roused  to  greater  interest,  of  which  the  first  evidence  was 
the  establishment  in  1858  of  the  Alumni  Association  prize  of  $50  to  the 
most  faithful  and  deserving  student  of  the  graduating  class,  which  has 
been  awarded  annually  ever  since. 

COLUMBIA  IN  WAR  TIME 

The  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  in  1861  interrupted  the  expansion 
and  diminished  the  attendance  and  resources  of  the  College.  Numbers 
of  students  and  alumni  went  to  the  front,  where  many  of  them  served 
with  great  distinction.  Members  of  the  Faculty  also  gave  loyal  aid, 
notably  the  distinguished  historian  Francis  Lieber,  who  was  a  frequent 
adviser  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  The  only  blot  on  the  Faculty  record  was 
promptly  wiped  out  by  the  action  of  the  Trustees  on  October  15,  1863, 
which  is  set  forth  in  a  news  clipping  pasted  below  the  photograph  of  the 
Professor  of  Physics  in  the  album  of  the  Class  of  1862 : 

"WThereas,  Richard  S.  McCulloh,  Professor  of  Mechanics  and  Physics 
in  this  College,  has  abandoned  his  post  of  duty  and  gone  to  the  City  of 
Richmond  and  allied  himself  to  those  in  Rebellion  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  said  Richard  S.  McCulloh  be  and  he  is  hereby 
expelled  from  the  Professorship  aforesaid,  and  that  the  said  Professor- 
ship be  and  is  hereby  declared  to  be  vacant. 

Resolved,  That  the  name  of  Richard  S.  McCulloh  be  stricken  from 
the  list  of  Professors  of  this  College,  and  a  note  stating  the  fact  and 
ground  of  his  expulsion  be  appended  to  his  name. 

Hamilton  Fish,  Chairman." 

More  typical  of  the  Columbia  spirit  was  the  enthusiastic  flag-raising 
of  April  23,  1861,  in  front  of  the  College  building,  when  the  President, 
Trustees,  and  Faculty,  surrounded  by  the  student  body  wearing  gowns 
decorated  with  red,  white  and  blue  ribbons,  received  Major  Robert  Ander- 


Sixteen 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 
•♦♦a — ^   •    =»» 

son,  of  Fort  Sumter  fame.  After  prayer  by  the  Chaplain,  Major  Ander- 
son hoisted  the  flag,  while  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  was  sung  by  the 
assemblage.  Patriotic  addresses  were  made  by  Hamilton  Fish  and  other 
College  officers,  and  Professor  Lieber's  song  Freeland  was  sung.  The 
original  programme  and  an  account  of  this  stirring  occasion  may  be  seen 
on  the  Columbiana  walls. 

BARNARD  AND  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 

With  the  resignation  of  President  King  in  1864  an  era  in  the  history 
of  the  College  definitely  ended,  and  was  replaced  by  a  period  of  germina- 
tion, at  first  slow  and  struggling,  but  soon  gathering  impetus  and  cul- 
minating at  last  in  the  marvelous  unfolding  of  the  University  to-day. 
It  was  the  great  good  fortune  of  Columbia  to  find  in  the  person  of  Fred- 
erick A.  P.  Barnard,  Yale  1828,  a  scholar  of  profound  learning,  a  trained 
and  distinguished  educator,  and  above  all  a  prophet  and  dreamer  of 
dreams.  He  came  to  a  small  college  struggling  with  the  problems  of  de- 
velopment and  expansion  into  broader  fields,  at 
a  time  when  educational  theory  and  practice  were 
in  an  unsettled  condition,  and  at  once  assumed 
the  position  of  leader  and  pathfinder.  His  whole 
term  of  office  is  a  story  of  planting,  tilling,  and 
watering  a  sometimes  reluctant  soil,  experiment- 
ing, testing,  changing  methods,  and  finally  mak- 
ing possible  a  harvest  of  which  he  was  able  to 
see  only  the  beginnings.  Himself  a  noted  scien- 
tist, he  actively  supported  the  School  of  Mines, 
the  pioneer  mining  school  of  the  country,  which 
was  established  in  the  first  year  of  his  admin- 
istration by  the  efforts  of  Professor  Thomas 
Egleston,  and  served,  at  first  without  pay,  by 
Chandler,  Van  Amringe,  Peck,  and  Newberry. 
The  lectures  on  political  economy,  begun  by  Pro- 
fessor McVickar  in  1818,  the  first  ever  delivered 
in  an  American  college,  and  carried  on  by  Lieber,  had  their  fruition  in 
the  School  of  Political  Science  under  Professor  John  W.  Burgess,  Am- 
herst '67,  in  1880.  The  founding  of  these  two  schools  were  vital  steps  in 
the  University  development  of  Columbia,  a  cause  to  which  Burgess  lent 
himself  whole-heartedly. 

President  Barnard  labored  in  season  and  out  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  women.  In  1883  he  wrung  from  a  reluctant  Board  the  recognition 
of  an  equivalent  collegiate  course  for  women  under  the  general  oversight 
of  the  College  Faculty  leading  only  to  a  certificate.  The  opposition  even 
to  this  was  virtually  universal  among  the  professors  and  students,  and 
the  College  papers  of  the  time  are  eloquent  of  the  hostility  aroused  by 
"Co-Education."  The  few  women  that  availed  themselves  of  the  privilege 
were  made  unpleasantly  conspicuous,  and  none  were  received  in  the  course 
after  1889,  when  a  separate  college  for  women  was  established  in  a  mod- 
est Madison  Avenue  dwelling  and  named  Barnard  College  in  honor  of  the 
man  who  made  its  existence  possible. 


Seventeen 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

Radical  changes  in  the  course,  which  now  seem  commonplace,  were 
brought  about  by  Barnard — the  optional  study  of  modern  languages  in 
the  Freshman  and  Sophomore  years,  the  introduction  of  electives  in  the 
Junior  year,  and  the  free  election  of  all  studies  in  the  Senior  year.  Many 
prizes,  scholarships,  and  fellowships  came  into  existence;  the  Law  School 
was  brought  up  to  the  Campus  from  its  old  quarters  in  Great  Jones  Street ; 
a  new  College  building,  the  first  Hamilton  Hall,  was  erected  in  1879;  the 
Library  was  housed  in  a  new  structure  and  its  use  liberalized.  The 
College  building  was  for  some  time  unnamed,  except  by  the  student  body, 
who  christened  it  Anthon  Hall  in  honor  of  the  great  Charles  Anthon, 
for  thirty-seven  years  the  classical  luminary  of  the  College.  The  Class 
Day  song  of  the  Class  of  '82  complains: 

"But  we  wish  that  we  knew  what  to  call 
This  very  anonymous  hall ; 

For  Anthon  Hall  we  say, 

And  New  Building  they  say, 
And  the  poor  thing  has  no  name  at  all." 

GREAT  COLUMBIA  TEACHERS 

Dr.  Barnard  was  fortunate  in  the  character  and  calibre  of  his  faculty 
associates,  among  whom  were  numbered  many  great  personalities,  men  of 
deep  and,  happily,  broad  scholarship.  The  age  of  the  specialist  had  not  yet 
fully  arrived,  and  the  instruction  was  tinged  with  that  academic  breadth 
of  atmosphere  for  which  no  substitute  has  since  been  found.  They  were 
not  all  pedagogues,  but  most  of  them  were  in  the  best  sense  teachers. 
The  professorial  type  differed  physically  and  mentally  from  that  of  to- 
day. Beards,  frequently  white  beards,  were  the  rule.  Their  garb  was 
sober,  their  carriage  dignified.  Their  contact  with  the  student  was  con- 
fined to  the  class  room.  They  exercised  no  oversight  or  authority  over 
student  life  or  activities.  Much  of  their  teaching  was  still  in  the  lesson- 
hearing  stage,  but  often  enriched  by  humanizing  glimpses  of  other  fields. 
The  Faculty  of  Forty-Ninth  Street,  with  all  the  limitations  of  their  system 
and  time,  gave  what  it  is  the  province  of  the  college  to  give,  a  liberal 
training. 

While  the  roster  of  the  Faculty  would  have  little  meaning  for  this 
generation,  certain  great  personalities  stand  out  because  of  their  services 
to  the  College  and  the  community.  The  United  States  owes  its  classical 
scholarship  largely  to  one  of  Columbia's  great  teachers,  Charles  Anthon 
of  the  Class  of  1815,  who  in  his  editions  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics 
first  presented  to  the  English-speaking  reader  the  treasures  of  classical 
scholarship  and  archaeology  unearthed  by  European  scholars.  For  thirtv- 
seven  years,  from  1830  to  1867,  Anthon  impressed  his  vigorous  and  pic- 
turesque personality  on  the  College  as  Professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  and 
as  head  of  the  Grammar  School.  The  teaching  of  mathematics  likewise 
was  revolutionized  by  Charles  Davies,  a  West  Point  graduate  of  1815, 
who  introduced  modern  French  mathematics  in  America,  and  by  his  text- 
books, notably  his  adaptation  of  Legendre's  Geometry,  completely  trans- 
formed the  methods  of  instruction  in  this  country. 


Eighteen 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 


One  of  the  earliest  of  our  galaxy  of  great  names  and  the  last  of  his 
period  to  survive,  came  in  Barnard's  first  year,  as  a  young,  enthusiastic 
scientist  to  be  a  co-founder  of  the  School  of  Mines,  and  his  service  to  the 
College  and  to  New  York  ended  only  with  his  death  in  1925.  Professor 
Chandler,  until  a  few  months  ago  a  familiar  figure  on  Morningside,  made 
himself  a  name  in  his  profession,  in  the  Chair  of  Chemistry,  in  the  Board 
of  Health  of  the  City,  and  in  the  hearts  of  his  "boys"  in  the  Mines.  His 
was  among  the  most  human  of  the  lecture  rooms,  the  recitations  en- 
livened by  many  a  story  and  joke,  and  his  memory  is  one  of  our  traditions. 

Dr.  John  McVickar  retired  in  1864  after  forty-seven  years  of  active 
service  as  Professor  of  Philosophy,  Rhetoric,  Belles-Lettres,  Political 
Economy,  and  Religion  in  the  old  and  in  the  new  College.  He  too  inspired 
the  collegiate  body  with  affection  and  veneration,  and  was  to  his  genera- 
tion what  Van  Amringe  and  Chandler  were  to  theirs.  It  is  a  singular 
fact  that  two  personalities  dominated  a  full  century  of  Columbia  life,  for 
the  mantle  of  McVickar  was  taken  up  by  a  young  tutor  appointed  in  1860 
immediately  after  his  graduation  and  laid  down  only  at  his  retirement 
in  1910.  It  is  the  great  loss  of  the  present  generation  that  it  could  not 
know  John  Howard  Van  Amringe  in  the  body.  That  he  was  a  teacher 
of  Mathematics  was  fortuitous  and  unimportant.  He  was  an  example 
of  the  best  product  of  the  classical  training,  a  lover  and  a  master  of  good 
English,  a  good  citizen,  and  a  very  human  man. 
For  more  than  fifty  years  Columbia  College  was 
the  constant  object  of  his  loyalty  and  affec- 
tion. Everything  relating  to  her  and  to  her 
sons  commanded  his  enthusiastic  support,  and 
the  College  reciprocated  with  an  affection  such 
as  has  rarely  been  the  portion  of  a  teacher. 
Strict  in  the  class  room  and  in  the  Dean's  of- 
fice, outside  he  was  purely  an  alumnus,  active 
in  all  the  College  interests,  and  the  natural 
centre  of  all  College  gatherings.  He  lived  to 
see  his  dream  of  a  fitting  home  of  the  Col- 
lege realized,  and  still  lives  in  marble  and 
bronze  on  the  Campus,  in  the  College  club  that 
bears  his  name,  and  in  the  memories  of  the 
great  army  of  graduates  who  loved  him. 

The  Class  of  '42  gave  the  Faculty  Henry 
Drisler,  the  honored  Professor  of  Greek,  and 
later  the  first  Dean,  whose  services  covered 
fifty-one  years,  in  1857.  He  was  distinguished 
to  the  student  mind  chiefly  by  his  white  beard,  his  love  for  the  Aorist 
tense,  and  his  unconscionably  lengthy  examination  papers. 

One  of  the  striking  figures  of  the  College  was  Charles  Short,  Pro- 
fessor of  Latin,  in  appearance  a  typical  English  squire,  with  ruddy  cheeks 
and  snowy  mutton  chop  whiskers,  pronounced  mannerisms,  and  a  naive 
self-satisfaction  that  was  a  source  of  much  joy  to  his  classes.  A  recita- 
tion rarely  passed  without  some  story  of  one  of  his  very  learned  friends 


VAN  AM 


Nineteen 


Columbia  o)  Yesterday 

or  of  some  occurrence  "when  I  was  at  Cambridge,"  for  he  never  referred 
10  his  Alma  Mater  as  Harvard.  His  memory  lives  in  the  famous  song 
so  often  shouted  before  his  door,  "Saw  my  leg  off,  Short." 

One  of  the  best  loved  instructors  was  W.  G.  Peck,  Professor  of  Math- 
ematics and  Astronomy  during  almost  the  whole  stay  of  the  College  at 
Forty-ninth  Street.  Every  one  of  his  old  students  cherishes  very  pleas- 
ant memories  of  rotund  "Billy"  Peck,  the  students'  friend,  with  his  West 
Point  air,  his  squeaky  voice,  and  his  pleasure  in  getting  the  students  out 
of  any  trouble  with  the  authorities. 

St.  Nick  himself,  as  though  he  had  stepped  out  of  the  "Night  Before 
Christmas,"  with  rosy  cheek,  clear  eye,  and  flowing  beard,  walked  the 
Campus  for  a  quarter  century  in  the  person  of  the  gentle,  irascible,  un- 
suspicious Scotchman  Professor  Nairne,  who  taught  Philosophy  and  Lit- 
erature (chiefly  Paradise  Lost). 

Space  is  lacking  to  tell  of  the  great  physicist  Rood,  his  grim  counte- 
nance of  an  old-time  alchemist  rising  incongruously  above  the  blazing 
red  tie  he  affected ;  of  Burgess,  so  imbued  with  German  University  meth- 
ods that  students  have  been  known  to  pass  his  course  on  Constitutional 
Law  by  attending  only  the  first  lecture  and  the  final  examination ;  of  the 
accomplished  Price  of  Virginia,  who  infused  the  English  department  with 
new  life,  but  never  quite  learned  to  understand  the  Northern  student. 
But  one  more  of  the  familiar  names  can  not  be  passed  over,  because  he 
represented,  in  subject  and  method,  the  dry-as-dust  in  full  perfection, 
and  so  was  responsible  for  the  most  picturesque  of  Columbia  customs. 
Dr.  Schmidt  had  joined  the  Faculty  in  1847,  and  from  then  until  1880 
taught  German  and,  for  our  sins,  a  repellant  work  called  Bojesen's  Greek 
and  Roman  Antiquities.  To  make  his  teaching  the  more  attractive,  he 
printed  a  pamphlet  of  sixty-six  solid  pages  of  questions,  each  marked 
with  its  educational  market  value  in  points,  from  which  he  never  varied 
except  to  correct  a  wrong  pronunciation.  The  old  gentleman's  professorial 
desk,  built  after  the  manner  of  an  old-fashioned  pew,  concealed  most  of 
his  person  except  his  high  stock,  half  closed  eyes,  and  long,  austere  coun- 
tenance, from  which  in  a  sort  of  Gregorian  intonation  proceeded  such 
questions  as,  "At  entrance  of  the  pons,  each  citizen  received  what;  how 
termed  in  Latin ;  on  which,  at  what  sort  of  elections,  what  was  inscribed, 
in  wThat  manner?  How  many  tablets  given?  9  points."  Or  "On  a  journey 
the  Romans  used  what,  like  what,  made  of  what,  ending  in  what,  how 
called?  5  points."  Can  it  be  wondered  that  after  a  year  of  these  joys 
the  victims  proceeded  whole-heartedly  to  the  annual  immolation  of  Bo- 
jesen  and  all  his  works  in  the  Burial  of  the  Ancient? 

FORTY-NINTH  STREET  STUDENTS  IN  THE  MORNINGSIDE  FACULTY 

Of  these  picturesque  personalities,  great  in  themselves,  not  only  in 
relation  to  their  age,  the  last  disappeared  with  Chandler,  and  their  type 
will  not  be  seen  again.  Nor  will  the  academic  atmosphere  in  which  they 
moved,  and  which  by  contact  with  them  their  students  to  some  extent  at 
least  absorbed,  reappear.  That  is  part  of  the  price  of  progress  in  other 
directions.   But  the  character  they  gave  to  Barnard's  Columbia  still  finds 


Twenty 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

•+»a 

expression  in  the  host  of  future  teachers  they  trained,  some  of  whom  are 
to-day  carrying  on  their  work  at  Morningside.  Some,  who  had  won  for 
themselves  distinguished  positions,  are  gone — Ashmore  '75  and  the  bril- 
liant Peck  '81  in  Latin ;  Merriam  '69,  the  finished  Hellenist  and  archaeol- 
ogist, and  Earle  '86,  the  promising  young  Greek  scholar;  Rees  '72,  as- 
tronomer and  good  alumnus;  Goodwin  '76,  mathematician  and  Captain 
of  the  victorious  Henley  Crew ;  Sherman  '84,  teacher  of  architecture  and 
graceful  poet;  Dunning  '81,  deep  student  of  history.  Sloane  '68,  noted 
historian,  Share  '81,  and  Woodward  '88  have  retired  from  the  educational 
field ;  and  Hopkins  '78  has  long  held  the  great  Whitney's  chair  of  Sanskrit 
at  Yale.  But  Forty-ninth  Street  is  worthily  represented  to-day  by  Bran- 
der  Matthews  '71,  Perry  '75,  Seligman  '79,  Egbert  and  Gottheil  '81,  Jack- 
son, Pupin,  and  Walker  '83,  Kemp  '84,  Jacoby  and  McCrea  '85,  Knapp 
'87,  Baldwin,  Fiske,  and  Young  '88,  Bogert  '90,  and  Crampton  '93,  a 
goodly  company  of  witnesses.  And  in  addition  the  College  of  Barnard 
produced  his  two  successors  in  office — Low  '70  and  Butler  '82. 

This  list  tends  to  confirm  a  fact  long  since  demonstrated,  that  Colum- 
bia College,  as  a  college  pure  and  simple,  reached  its  high  water  mark 
in  the  early  eighties,  because  at  that  period  the  spirit  of  the  student  body 
reached  its  highest  intensity.  The  early  diversity  of  interest  between 
the  School  of  Arts,  or  College  proper,  and  the  School  of  Mines,  which 
together  made  up  the  undergraduate  body,  had  gradually  disappeared. 
The  individual  class  formed  a  complete  unit,  since  all  its  members  did 
the  same  things  at  the  same  time,  and  so  were  knit  together  in  a  solidarity 
impossible  under  a  different  system,  in  which  electives  split  the  class 
unit  into  divergent  groups  and  increasing  numbers  destroyed  the  inti- 
mate personal  relations  among  individuals.  None  can  say  that  the  newer 
coHege  spirit  is  less  or  more  desirable  than  the  older;  it  is  and  must  be 
different.  It  is  certain  that  the  intense  solidarity  of  Forty-ninth  Street 
has  been  a  source  of  strength  and  inspiration  to  the  University  of  Morn- 
ingside. 

Barnard  died  on  April  27,  1889,  after  twenty-five  years  of  illustrious 
service,  making  the  College  he  loved  so  well  the  residuary  legatee  of  all 
that  he  possessed.  He  found  a  college  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  stu- 
dents, exclusively  obligatory  courses,  a  minute  library,  and  a  contracted 
sphere;  he  left  it  with  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  students,  elastic 
courses,  and  a  liberalized  spirit,  on  the  verge  of  entering  into  its  heritage. 

THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  FORTY-NINTH  STREET 

With  Seth  Low,  '70,  who  succeeded  Barnard  in  1889,  Columbia  en- 
tered the  stage  of  co-ordination.  The  various  schools  had  been  success- 
fully built  up  during  the  preceding  administration,  but  lacked  the  help- 
ful inter-relation  and  common  dependence  upon  a  central  body  needed 
for  the  harmonious  development  of  the  whole  University.  By  the  end  of 
President  Low's  first  year  this  reorganization  had  been  effected,  and  the 
institution,  for  the  first  time  thoroughly  unified,  assumed  the  character 
of  a  real  University.  One  of  the  most  far-reaching  results  immediately 
reaMzed  was  the  privilege  given  to  Seniors  to  pursue  elective  courses 
under  any  Faculty,  yet  counting  toward  the  A.  B.  degree,  thus  shortening 


Twenty-one 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

the  time  required  for  the  combined  college  and  professional  course.  In 
1896  the  transformation  of  the  College  was  recognized  by  the  adoption 
of  a  resolution  authorizing  the  use  thereafter  in  all  official  publications 
of  the  collective  designation  Columbia  University  for  the  departments 
maintained  by  the  Corporation.  It  was  however  not  until  1912  that  the 
corporate  title  was  legally  changed. 

With  the  reorganization  came  also  a  greatly  stimulated  public  in- 
terest, and  the  beginnings  of  the  still  continuing  wave  of  benefactions 
which  made  Morningside  possible.  Throughout  the  Forty-ninth  Street  pe- 
riod, the  removal  of  the  College  had  been  a  subject  of  discussion.  The 
Alumni  Association  in  1871  appointed  a  Committee  on  the  Location  of 
the  College,  which  after  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  arguments  for  and 
against  removal  from  the  City — the  moral  influences  and  social  distrac- 
tions of  a  great  city,  the  proximity  to  a  railroad  with  its  attendant  noises, 
the  value  of  family  restraints  and  of  dormitory  life — reported  that  "a 
site  within  a  populous  city  is  the  most  advantageous  for  a  college  estab- 
lishment, and  that  our  Alma  Mater  is  in  possession  of  a  site  to  which  your 
Committee  know  none  superior."  But  the  necessity  of  removal  from 
the  cramped  quarters  at  Forty-ninth  Street  became  increasingly  evident, 
it  was  constantly  urged  by  President  Barnard,  and  the  long  postponed 
action  was  taken  at  last  when  an  option  was  secured  in  1891  on  the  four 
blocks  occupied  by  the  Bloomingdale  Asylum  between  116th  and  120th 
Streets,  Amsterdam  Avenue,  and  the  Boulevard  (Broadway).  In  Decem- 
ber, 1895,  the  first  corner-stone,  that  of  the  Library  building,  given  by 
President  Low,  was  laid ;  the  new  site  was  formally  dedicated  on  May  2, 
1896;  and  in  1897  Columbia  occupied  her  present  and  probably  her  per- 
manent home.  This  action  closed  the  third  chapter  of  our  history,  and 
opened  a  new  era  wholly  different  and  with  unknown  potentialities  now 
marvelously  fulfilling  themselves  under  another  alumnus  of  Forty-ninth 
Street. 

BUTLER  AT  FORTY-NINTH  STREET 

It  calls  for  a  better  memory  than  most  of  even  his  closest  acquaint- 
ances possess  to  identify  the  present  President 
of  the  University  with  the  ingenuous  stripling 
who  made  his  first  appearance  on  the  Campus  at 
the  entrance  examinations  of  the  Class  of  1882, 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  youngest  members. 
But  in  mental  habit  and  intellectual  power  Butler 
has  not  changed  from  the  Freshman  of  1878. 
The  lines  of  his  later  development  were  speedily 
apparent  to  his  class-mates  in  his  scholastic  rank, 
his  initiative,  his  participation  in  varied  activ- 
ities, his  purposeful  outlook.  He  drew  up  the 
first  constitution  of  his  Class  and  became  its 
President.  As  Sophomore  he  was  Chairman  of 
the  Burial  Committee;  as  Junior,  Chairman  of 
the  Columbiad  Board;  as  Senior,  first  honor  man 

and  valedictorian  at  Commencement.     He  was     butler  as  a  student 


T 'went}) -I  wo 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

active  in  Psi  Upsilon  and  in  Peithologia,  and  served  as  editor- 
in-chief  of  the  Acta.  His  bent  was  strongly  in  the  direction  of 
Philosophy,  in  which,  after  taking  the  Doctor's  degree  in  1884, 
he  pursued  courses  at  the  Universities  of  Berlin  and  Paris.  With  the 
exception  of  this  year  of  foreign  study,  his  life  has  been  spent  in  and 
for  Columbia,  where  he  became  Assistant  in  Philosophy  in  1885,  Tutor  in 
1886,  Adjunct  Professor  in  1889,  Professor  of  Philosophy  and  Education 
and  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  in  1890.  During  these  years  he 
was  rapidly  gaining  reputation  in  political  and  educational  circles  in  the 
Boards  of  Education  of  his  state,  in  the  National  Educational  Associa- 
tion, and  as  first  President  of  the  College  for  the  Training  of  Teachers, 
now  Teachers  College.  During  the  same  years  he  was  quietly  acquiring 
an  intimate  familiarity  with  all  phases  of  the  College  and  was  construc- 
tively influential  in  molding  its  development,  so  that  on  Low's  retire- 
ment in  1901  Butler's  close  association  with  Barnard's  planning  and  his 
participation  in  its  realization,  his  educational  standing  and  his  known 
executive  ability,  inevitably  made  him  the  appointed  instrument  for  bring- 
ing to  fruition  all  that  Barnard  dreamed,  but  saw  only  with  the  eye  of 
faith.  But  the  story  of  this  latest  chapter  of  our  history  can  not  be  told 
here. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  COLUMBIA  TRADITIONS 

From  the  College  regulations,  the  Black  Book,  and  occasional  hints  in 
letters  we  glean  a  general  idea  of  student  conditions  in  the  early  days,  but 
practically  nothing  of  student  activities,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
college  life  in  the  modern  sense.  While  the  students  probably  knew  some 
form  of  football  and  other  games,  of  organized  college  sports  there  is  no 
trace.  College  papers  and  glee  clubs  were  in  the  distant  future.  So  ap- 
parently were  dramatics  and  all  other  of  our  present  activities,  with  one 
notable  exception — the  literary  society.  To  this  form  of  relaxation  the 
student  mind  early  turned,  no  doubt  influenced  by  the  prevailing  fond- 
ness for  theological  and  political  discussion  and  by  the  classical  atmosphere 
of  their  training.  The  first  recorded  society  was  founded  in  1766,  and  it 
soon  became  customary  for  each  Senior  class  to  establish  its  own  Senior 
Society  for  Literary  improvement.  The  oldest  surviving  Columbia  tra- 
dition is  represented  by  the  Philolexian  Society,  founded  in  1802.  In  1806 
the  Peithologian  was  born  and  the  two  societies  entered  upon  a  friendly 
rivalry  which  lasted  nearly  a  century.  The  student  interest  in  these  vol- 
untary activities  was  very  real.  The  formal  joint  debates  between  the 
Societies  were  closely  followed,  and  their  respective  Anniversaries  were 
important  functions.  The  foundation  of  the  Barnard  Literary  Society 
in  1877  was  in  the  nature  of  a  protest  against  what  was  regarded  as  a 
falling  off  in  character  on  the  part  of  the  two  older  societies.  Peithologia 
did  not  survive  the  Fortv-ninth  Street  era,  Barnard  succumbed  shortly 
after  the  removal,  and  the  exclusively  literary  character  of  Philolexia 
gradually  changed. 

SEMI-ANNUAL 

Among  the  general  College  festivities  of  Forty-ninth  Street  the  most 
prominent  was  the  Students'  Semi-Annual,  held  about  the  middle  of  Feb- 


Twenty- three 


Columbia  oj  Yesterday 

ruary  under  the  charge  of  the  Seniors.  Up  to  18G2 
the  Semi-Annual  Commencement,  or  Semi-Annual 
Celebration,  was  an  official  affair  conducted  by  the 
Faculty,  at  which  speakers  representing  each  of  the 
classes  and  the  two  literary  societies  delivered  ora- 
tions, and  awards  of  merit  were  determined  by  the 
votes  of  the  Faculty.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War  it  was  announced,  to  the  surprise  and  disap- 
pointment of  the  undergraduates,  that  the  Semi- 
Annual  would  be  dispensed  with,  apparently  in  the 
belief  that  it  was  a  superfluous  and  expensive  lux- 
ury at  so  solemn  a  time.  Thereupon  the  Seniors 
met  and  decided  to  raise  the  money  and  run  it 
themselves.  Wallack's  Theatre  and  a  famous  or- 
chestra were  engaged,  and  the  Students'  Semi-An- 
nual was  inaugurated  in  1862  before  a  crowded 
house.  The  occasion  soon  took  on  the  character 
of  a  social  function.  For  a  few  years  it  was  held 
at  Niblo's  or  Wallack's,  and  after  1870  at  the 
Academy  of  Music  on  Fourteenth  Street.  The 
real  audience  occupied  the  orchestra,  while  the 
boxes  were  filled  with  pretty  girls  and  students, 
who  with  the  aid  of  the  best  obtainable  music 
during  the  intervals  between  speeches  crowded 
the  corridors  and  turned  the  affair  into  a  Senior  ball.  Along  with  the 
genuine  programmes,  mock  programmes,  identical  in  appearance  and 
sometimes  very  amusing,  were  distributed,  while  the  speakers  were  not 
always  safe  from  incursions  onto  the  stage  by  other  classes.  In  later 
years  interest  was  transferred  to  other  objects,  and  a  good  college  cus- 
tom died  out  with  the  Class  of  '80. 

GOODWOOD 

One  of  the  great  College  events  was  the  Goodwood  Cup,  awarded  to 
the  most  popular  member  of  the  Junior  Class,  toward  the  end  of  the  col- 
lege year.  On  the  brilliantly  illuminated  Campus  the  orator  of  the  occa- 
sion made  the  presentation,  rehearsing  the  qualifications  of  the  recipient, 
who  in  turn  made  a  speech  of  acceptance.  The  exercises  were  followed 
by  feasting  and  dancing  in  the  College  buildings.  The  Goodwood  Cup  was 
inaugurated  by  the  Class  of  1864,  and  was  awarded  for  the  last  time 
by  the  Class  of  1878.  It  was  a  picturesque  and  colorful  tradition,  but  it 
was  so  inevitably  productive  of  class  and  fraternity  politics  and  engen- 
dered so  much  feeling  that  its  abandonment  was  not  to  be  regretted. 
Of  the  fifteen  cups  awarded  thirteen  have  been  returned  to  the  University 
through  the  efforts  of  an  energetic  alumnus  and  are  fittingly  displayed  in 
Columbiana. 

THE  BURIAL 

Of  a  quite  different  character  was  the  special  Sophomore  tradition, 
the  Burial  of  the  Ancient,  the  first  ceremony  of  the  kind  being  held  by 
the  Class  of  1862.    The  Sophomores,  arrayed  in  black  gowns  and  high 


Twenty-four 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 
  -     8f+- 

hats,  with  skull  and  cross  bones  and  smoky  torches,  met  at  the  Worth 
Monument,  carrying  the  bier  of  the  departed  Bojesen.  Thence  with 
police  accompaniment  and  a  growing 
crowd  of  students  the  funeral  procession 
paraded  more  or  less  solemnly  to  the 
College,  occasionally  halting  to  serenade 
some  popular  girls'  school  or  the  home 
of  a  College  officer.  The  Deadly  Orator 
mounted  a  stand  and  pronounced  the 
funeral  oration,  rehearsing  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  class  at  the  hands  of  the 
deceased;  the  Lugubrious  Poet  amplified 
the  same  theme;  and  the  Ancient  was 
consigned  to  the  flames.  Generally  the 
President  of  the  College  responded  to 
calls  for  a  speech,  after  which  the  parade 
reformed,  with  one  of  the  German  beer  gardens  uptown  (which  then 
meant  somewhere  in  the  sixties  or  seventies)  as  its  objective,  separating  in 
the  early  hours  battered  but  happy,  with  smashed  stovepipes  and  nursing 
many  a  scar  caused  by  the  dripping  pitch  of  the  torches.  These  celebra- 
tions were  productive  of  much  hilarity,  some  disorder  and  breakage,  but 
no  considerable  excesses,  and  the  efforts  of  the  unco  guid  to  substitute 
fireworks  for  beer  always  came  to  nothing.  With  the  Class  of  '82  the 
Burial  transferred  its  attentions  from  Bojesen  to  a  still  more  unpopular 
subject — Anglo-Saxon,  then  just  introduced.  Certain  personal  allusions 
during  the  Campus  exercises  having  roused  the  ire  of  President  Barnard, 
he  prohibited  the  celebration  of  the  time-honored  Burial,  and  the  '83  Com- 
mittee were  forced  to  invent  in  its  place  the  Triumph,  which  varied  from 
its  predecessor  chiefly  in  that  the  gowns  were  white  instead  of  black,  and 
that  Legendre  henceforth  was  made  the  victim.  There  was  no  other  vis- 
ible difference.  Of  late  the  special  character  of  the  Triumph  has  gone, 
and  the  custom  itself  has  recently  joined  our  other  vanished  traditions. 

FRITZ— THE  ORIGINAL  GEMOT 

Accounts  of  some  of  the  old  Burials  place  the  scene  of  the  last  act, 
variously  termed  Perideipnon,  Convivium,  and,  in  the  one  Anglo-Saxon 
year,  Gebeorscipe,  at  Fritz's.  Fritz,  during  the  seventies  and  eighties, 
was  to  Columbia  in  some  measure  what  Moriarty  was  to  Yale.  He  was 
known  to  every  successive  class  and  his  photograph  forms  part  of  the 
Class  album.  In  form  and  countenance  a  typical  mine  host,  he  presided 
over  the  dispensing  room  of  the  Schaeffer  Brewery  across  the  track  on 
the  corner  of  50th  Street,  and  later  opened  his  own  establishment  near  by, 
where,  as  a  card  in  the  Acta  informs  us,  he  "has  now  on  hand  a  stock  of 
the  FINEST  LAGER  BIER  in  this  city.  P.  S.  Goodwood  and  Burial  En- 
tertainments a  Specialty." 

Another  old  time  Boniface  calls  for  mention,  because  at  Paullus', 
on  Forty-ninth  Street,  opposite  the  President's  house,  was  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  '81  Ferre-Gemot,  or  plain  Gemot,  whose  memory  endures  in  the 
room  equipped  by  the  class  in  the  present  Hamilton  Hall.   The  Gemot  was 


Twenty-five 


Columbia  u)  Yesterday 

a  coterie  Of  choice  spirits  of  '81  given  to  larks  and  music,  who  were  often 
to  be  seen  stretched  on  the  grass  tilling  the  Campus  with  melody,  and  tra- 
ditionally famous  for  their  skill  in  extracting  from  unsuspicious  Fresh- 
men payments  for  rental  of  seats  in  Chapel,  which  contributions  promptly 
became  fluid  in  Paullus'.  Its  members  were  Gesiths,  a  word  which  came 
to  mean  a  good  fellow  in  the  Campus  terminology;  its  head  was  the 
Bomm-Gerefa,  its  treasurer  the  Keeper  of  the  Wergild — all  titles  drawn 
from  Stubbs'  Constitutional  History,  a  textbook  which  vied  in  juiceless- 
ness  with  Bojesen. 

Not  to  be  outdone  by  its  rival,  '82  evolved  the  S.  P.  Q.  R.,  sometimes 
translated  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Curious  Rackets,  under  the 
presidency  of  one  Vinator,  the  names  of  its  members  thinly  disguised 
under  Latin  forms. 

Class  Day,  which  was  inaugurated  by  '65,  did  not  differ  greatly  from 
present  usage.  There  were  the  Senior  Ball,  Junior  Reception,  Freshman 
rushes,  more  or  less  as  now,  and  the  Baby  Cup,  a  celebration  which  took 
place  at  Fritz's,  and  consisted  in  obliging  the  freshest  man  in  the  incom- 
ing class  to  drain  an  immense  vessel  of  beer. 

COMMENCEMENT 

Commencement  was  a  vastly  different  function  from  that  of  to-day. 
From  the  days  when  the  academic  procession,  headed  by  the  Janitor,  used 
to  wend  its  stately  way  through  Park  Place,  across  City  Hall  Park,  to  old 
St.  George's  on  Beekman  Street,  Commencement  was  always  severely 
scholastic.  For  a  century  it  was  held  in  one  of  the  City  churches,  during 
the  Forty-ninth  Street  period  at  the  Academy  of  Music.  It  consisted  of  a 
long  programme  of  orations  by  members  of  the  graduating  class,  including 
a  Salutatory,  a  Greek  poem,  and  the  Valedictory,  the  wThole  interspersed 
and  made  tolerable  by  dancing  in  the  corridors  in  the  intermissions.  The 
conferring  of  degrees  was  impressive  and  personal.  The  sonorous  Latin 
of  the  old  formula  was  repeated  as  each  man  came  forward  to  receive  his 
diploma  individually  at  the  hands  of  the  venerable  President.  Boxes  were 
assigned  to  all  the  class  and  were  always  filled  with  admiring  relatives 
and  friends,  to  wThom  each  youthful  graduate  wras  the  hero  of  the  occasion. 
But  with  the  close  of  the  formal  exercises  the  curtain  dropped  for  good. 
There  was  no  gathering  of  alumni,  no  thought  of  student  rites  or  human 
contacts ;  it  was  emphatically  the  end,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  take 
the  street-car  or  omnibus  home.  Fortunately,  we  have  changed  all  that. 

The  same  absence  of  official  recognition  of  the  individual  student  and 
of  his  life  outside  the  classroom  characterized  the  daily  operation  of  the 
College.  The  day  began  with  Chapel  service,  obligatory  for  all  residents 
of  New  York,  but  not  for  Brooklynites  and  other  foreigners.  Promptly 
at  ten  o'clock  the  programme  of  three  one-hour  classes  started,  and  ended 
with  equal  promptness  at  one,  after  wrhich  the  place  slumbered  until  the 
next  morning.  No  place  was  provided  to  invite  the  student  to  linger,  ex- 
cept the  Campus  or  the  low,  dark  cloakrooms.  The  College  papers  were 
indeed  permitted  to  occupy  odd  corners  not  otherwise  claimed,  and  the 
use  of  the  Chapel  was  accorded  the  Glee  Club  for  its  weekly  rehearsal. 
But  whatever  the  students  did  they  did  of  their  own  initiative,  without 


Twenty-six 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 
•HB==  ■«»♦• 

official  encouragement,  but  equally  without  official  regulation.  That  the 
undergraduate  body  under  such  conditions  inaugurated  so  many  activ- 
ities and  brought  so  many  of  them  to  the  highest  effectiveness  speaks  vol- 
umes for  the  spontaneous  spirit  of  Forty-ninth  Street,  a  spirit  still  glow- 
ing and  still  effective  in  the  ranks  of  the  Alumni. 

SPORTS 

The  down-town  College  knew  almost  nothing  of  college  activities. 
Athletic  sports  were  limited  to  desultory  boxing,  fencing,  baseball,  and 
rowing  until  the  College  was  removed  to  Forty-ninth  Street.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  removal  the  various  major  sports  began  to  appear  in 
quick  succession.  The  Class  of  '59  had  a  boat  crew  in  which  they  took 
much  pride.  The  favorite  game  of  the  earlier  years  was  baseball,  which 
also  appears  to  have  been  the  first  sport  in  which  intercollegiate  compe- 
titions were  held,  for  we  possess  the  programme  of  a  complimentary 
dinner  given  by  Colum- 
bia University  to  Yale 
University  in  May,  1868, 
when  the  Yale  team  came 
to  New  York  to  play  Co- 
lumbia. A  baseball  asso- 
ciation was  formed  in 
1867.  Frank  Torrey  of 
'81  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  to  introduce  the 
curved  ball.  Football  was 
introduced  by  the  Class 
of  '65,  which  played  on 
the  field  east  of  Fifth 
Avenue  between  49th  and 
50th  Streets.  An  Ath- 
letic Association  was 
formed  in  1869,  in  which 
year  college  contests  in  track  athletics  were  first  held,  and  class  games 
were  instituted  in  1881.  In  1876  Columbia  joined  the  Intercollegiate  Ath- 
letic Association,  winning  the  championship  the  following  year  and  fre- 
quently thereafter.  The  Seventies  saw  the  establishment  of  rowing  and 
two  of  our  greatest  crew  victories — in  the  second  intercollegiate  regatta 
at  Saratoga  in  1874,  and  at  Henley  in  1878.  Both  victories  aroused  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  in  New  York.  The  crews  were  received  like  con- 
querors. The  great  Henley  four — Goodwin,  Sage,  Edson,  and  Ridabock — 
the  first  to  bring  back  a  foreign  trophy  in  rowing,  met  with  an  unprece- 
dented reception  on  their  return.  Their  carriage  was  drawn  up  Broad- 
way by  joy-crazed  students,  from  the  clock  to  Delmonico's,  where  an  ova- 
tion awaited  them.  The  papers  were  filled  with  accounts  of  their  achieve- 
ments, and  the  Common  Council  passed  resolutions  of  congratulation, 
which  now  hang  in  the  Trophy  Room.  The  Columbia  College  Boat  Club 
was  formed  in  1873.  The  boathouse,  built  in  1876,  was  situated  on  the 
Harlem,  not  far  from  the  Mott  Haven  station. 


T  iventy-seven 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

-Jft*- 

Tennis  was  a  popular  sport.  So,  for  a  time,  were  cricket  and  lacrosse. 
Basketball  was  yet  unknown.  The  classes  from  1869  to  1872  had  their 
velocipede  club,  which  reappeared  in  1879  as  the  Bicycle  Club.  The  bicycle 
of  the  era  was  a  fearsome  combination  of  a  very  lofty  front  wheel  with 
a  very  low  hind  wheel,  its  construction  calling  for  great  powers  of  equilib- 
rium and  leading  to  frequent  spills.  These 
sports,  together  with  fencing,  riding, 
walking,  and  other  forms  of  athletics  of- 
fered a  generous  menu  of  physical  exer- 
cises hardly  excelled  today. 

THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  COLLEGE 
JOURNALISM 

The  non-athletic  activities  were  equal- 
ly varied  and  carried  on  with  equal  in- 
terest. Among  them,  the  undergraduate 
journals  ranked  in  importance  with  the 
literary  societies,  and  in  their  earliest  or- 
igins sprang  from  them.  We  are  fortu- 
nate in  possessing  the  first  essay  in  stu- 
dent publication  in  a  small  volume  of  some 
200  pages  found  among  the  papers  of  the 
Rev.  Gregory  T.  Bedell  of  the  Class  of 
1811.  It  contains  the  Philolexian  No.  1, 
a  three-page  manuscript  dated  February. 
1813,  and  the  twelve  issues  of  the  Philo- 
lexian Observer,  December  10th,  1813  to 
April,  1814,  also  in  manuscript  form.  As 
the  title  indicates,  the  little  paper  was 
strictly  the  organ  of  the  Society.  Only  a  page  from  the  first  Columbian 
a    single    copy    was    prepared,  which 

was  read  before  the  Society  at  its  meetings.  The  writer  of  all  the  num- 
bers of  the  Observer  is  not  known.  In  the  first  issue  he  says :  "My  name 
I  do  not  intend  to  disclose.  ...  I  choose  to  be  known  only  under  the  name 
of  Philolecticus.,,  He  also  professes  to  be  acquainted  with  the  author  of 
the  single  issue  of  Philolexian  Xo.  1,  but  does  not  betray  his  incognito. 
So  the  two  pioneers  in  Columbia  journalism  remain  unknown,  and  their 
services  must  be  added  to  the  numerous  honors  with  which  their  Society 
stands  credited.  Incidentally,  the  volume  contains  the  manuscript  of  a 
Forensic  Disputation  delivered  at  the  twelfth  anniversary  of  the  Society 
in  1814  on  the  question  "Would  it  be  expedient  to  extend  the  benefits  of 
a  liberal  education  to  the  female  sex?" — a  question  still  in  vigorous  dis- 
pute seventy-five  years  later. 

The  Philolexian  effort  apparently  stirred  the  spirit  of  emulation  in 
the  sister  society,  for  in  February,  1815,  Peithologia  published  the  first 
number  of  Academic  Recreations,  a  neat  duodecimo,  the  first  printed 
Columbia  publication.  While  conducted  by  members  of  Peithologia,  it  was 
not  limited  to  the  particular  interests  of  that  Society,  but  comprised  his- 
torical and  biographical  sketches,  essays  including  "the  whole  range  of 


Twenty-eight 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 
•HE  ~  BH- 

Polite  Literature,"  original  poems,  and  translations.  The  effort  appar- 
ently failed  to  secure  wide  support,  for  it  came  to  an  end  with  the  close 
of  the  college  year.    Its  editors  too  are  not  known. 

There  is  no  record  of  any  student  publication  for  the  next  thirty-three 
years,  and  then  the  attempt  took  a  quite  different  form.  The  first  printed 
catalogue  of  the  College  was  published  in  1848  by  Stephen  R.  Weeks,  for 
fifty  years  one  of  the  unique  figures  of  the  College,  who  filled  the  positions 
of  janitor,  proctor,  assistant  librarian,  and  for  a  year  lecturer  in  the 
Grammar  School.  Its  six  pages  contained  the  names  of  the  trustees,  fac- 
ulty, students,  and  officers  of  the  literary  societies.  Simultaneously  the 
Senior  Class  published  a  catalogue  covering  the  same  ground  but  extended 
to  sixteen  pages  with  fuller  details.  Thenceforth  the  catalogue  continued 
to  be  published  by  the  Senior  Class  and  became  a  real  college  year  book, 
giving  statistics  of  societies,  fraternities,  and  other  matters  of  interest. 
The  lavish  use  of  colored  inks  and  gold  in  the  catalogue  of  1857  brought 
down  the  censure  of  the  Trustees,  who  thereafter  assumed  the  official 
publication. 

Seven  years  elapsed  before  the  next  attempt,  this  time  by  the  Junior 
Class.  The  Class  of  1865  began  in  1864  the  first  publication  of  a  purely 
students'  annual  under  the  name  of  the  Columbian,  which  the  following 
year  was  changed  to  Columbiad  and  so  continued  until  1890,  when  the 
original  title  was  resumed.  The  early  issues  consisted  of  a  double  sheet 
of  21  by  12  inches,  containing  faculty  and  student  statistics,  an  editorial, 
and  a  poem.  Differences  in  the  board  of  editors  in  1868  over  the  question 
of  priority  between  two  fraternities  resulted  in  the  publication  of  two 
Columbiads,  one  faction  clinging  to  the  old  form,  the  other  selecting  a 
smaller  book  form.  A  second  duplication  occurred  with  the  1921  issue, 
when  the  Columbian  became  a  Senior  publication.  In  1878  the  School 
of  Mines  started  a  similar  annual,  the  Miner,  which  was  reunited  with 
the  Columbian  in  1890. 

On  this  foundation  began  in  1867  the  first  real  undergraduate  paper 
at  Columbia.  Cap  and  Gown  united  the  functions  of  a  newspaper  with 
those  of  a  literary  journal,  and  so  inaugurated  the  first  current  record 
of  college  happenings.  It  appeared  monthly  until  1873,  when  editorial 
representation  was  given  to  the  School  of  Mines,  and  the  name  was 
changed  to  Acta  Columbiana,  published  monthly  until  1877,  tri-weekly 
until  1879,  and  thereafter  fortnightly.  The  Acta  played  an  important 
part  in  the  Columbia  life  of  its  day,  and  was  ranked  among  the  leading 
college  papers  of  the  country.  John  B.  Pine,  Harry  Thurston  Peck,  Nich- 
olas Murray  Butler,  John  Kendrick  Bangs,  and  others  well  known  in  later 
years  were  among  those  who  in  the  early  eighties  made  it  famous  and 
influential.  Its  little  sanctum,  cut  off  from  a  corner  of  the  old  Forty- 
ninth  Street  cloakroom,  was  a  favorite  meeting  place  for  students,  and 
the  hatching  place  of  many  a  college  scheme.  The  Acta  was  a  spirited 
partisan,  persistent  in  defense  or  opposition,  and  not  at  all  averse  to  en- 
tering any  collegiate  or  intercollegiate  battle  of  the  pen.  The  polemics 
of  the  time  permitted  a  much  more  free  resort  to  personalities  than  now, 
a  latitude  of  which  the  pages  of  the  Acta  and  the  Columbiad  bear  ample 


Twenty -nine 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 

traces.  Another  side  appears  in  the  poetical  contributions  of  student 
writers,  which  in  Peck's  tender  verse  and  Sherman's  sonnets  reached  a 
level  of  real  poetry  not  Since  surpassed. 

Inevitable  divergences  of  interest  in  1877  led  to  a  more  or  less  friend- 
ly offshoot  from  the  parent  stock,  when  some  former  editors  of  the  Acta 
founded  the  Spectator  as  a  fortnightly.  The  new  entrant  duplicated  the 
news  service  of  the  older  paper,  but  soon  developed  a  distinctive  feature 
in  its  cartoons,  the  best  of  which  were  published  in  1882  in  College  Cuts. 
There  was  not  yet  room  for  two  papers  on  the  Campus,  and  the  Acta 
in  1885  was  merged  with  its  younger  rival,  which  has  continued  the  of- 
ficial student  news  organ  ever  since,  in  spite  of  a  short-lived  rivalry  of- 
fered by  the  Blue  and  White  and  the  Columbia  News  in  1891.  Its  purely 
literary  functions  were  taken  over  in  1892  by  the  Literary  Monthly. 

THE  GLEE  CLUB 

The  Undergraduate  Record,  a  compilation  of  student  activities  pub- 
lished in  1881,  remarks  that  ''unfortunately,  Glee  Clubs  have  never  proved 
successful  at  Columbia,"  a  criticism  which  had  validity  until  the  eighties, 
and  might,  by  present  day  standards,  be  extended  beyond  that  time.  The 
earlier  musical  efforts  were  chiefly  in  the  form  of  class  quartettes  and 
often  looked  principally  toward  the  improvement  of  Chapel  singing.  The 
first  College  Glee  Club  was  organized  in  1873,  and  had  a  successor  in 
1877  which  disappeared  three  years  later.  A  reorganization  effected  in 
1881  began  a  progress  since  uninterrupted.  Its  membership  was  drawn 
from  the  classes  of  '81  to  '84,  which  provided  enough  good  material  to  as- 
sure, even  under  very  amateurish  management,  an  eminent  social  and 
financial,  if  not  a  technically  musical,  success.  Its  first  important  con- 
cert, at  Chickering  Hall,  produced  a  considerable  sum  for  the  Boat  Club, 
while  the  less  formal  appearances  in  suburban  localities  were  a  source  of 
much  enjoyment  to  the  participants,  and  apparently  to  their  indulgent 
audiences.  In  those  simple  days  the  programme  consisted  almost  wholly 
of  the  standard  college  songs,  which  were  then  still  new  enough  to  amuse 
and  satisfy  the  public.  Musically,  the  performances  were  at  first  crude, 
but  their  quality  rapidly  improved  with  the  engagement  of  Arthur  Wood- 
ruff as  director,  and  the  Club  became  a  worthy  forerunner  of  its  present 
successors.  An  interesting  development,  which  might  well  be  commended 
to  the  Club  now,  was  the  formation  of  a  Graduate  Glee  Club  for  the  en- 
joyment of  former  members.  From  this  organization,  soon  expanded  by 
the  admission  of  members  of  other  colleges,  grew  the  present  University 
Glee  Club,  which  still  numbers  several  of  its  original  sponsors  in  its  mem- 
bership. ^  With  the  rise  of  the  Glee  Club  came  also  the  beginnings  of 
the  Banjo  Club  and  other  musical  organizations. 

Other  activities  too  did  not  lack  organizations.  Innumerable  clubs 
for  chess,  billiards,  whist,  euchre,  even  poker,  sprang  up  and  died.  By 
1881  thirteen  fraternities  flourished  and  at  certain  periods  exerted  far  too 
great  power  in  undergraduate  life. 


T  hirt  if 


■HB= 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 


50  ST 


49  ST 


COLUABIA  COLLEGE  1890 
A.  HAMILTON  HALL.    E>.  OLD  5UILD1NG 
C  CHAPEL      D.  SCHOOL  OF  MINES 
E  LIBRARY    F  PRESIDENT'S  HOUSE 


THE  FORTY-NINTH  STREET  SETTING 

From  this  outline  it  may  be  seen  that,  whatever  else  may  have  been 
wanting,  the  undergraduates  of  Forty-ninth  Street  lacked  none  of  the 
elements  of  college  life  except  perhaps  the  dormitory  feature;  and  that 
would  at  the  time  have  been  an  impossibility.  They  initiated  and  enjoyed 
to  the  full  the  College  activities  of  the  present  day,  and  they  still  enjoy 
them  keenly  in  retrospect.  With  these  memories  is  linked  indissolubly 
that  of  the  setting  of  the  old  College  life.  Although  confined  to  the  nar- 
row limits  of  a  city  block,  the  old  College 
managed  to  retain  an  effect  of  spacious- 
ness and  remoteness  not  warranted  by  its 
actual  dimensions.  As  originally  pur- 
chased, the  site  was  open  to  the  West  to 
Fifth  Avenue,  while  the  southern  outlook 
was  unimpeded  to  Forty-second  Street 
except  by  the  Bull's  Head  cattle  yards  on 
Fifth  Avenue  near  45th  Street.  On  the 
East  were  the  tracks  of  the  Harlem  Rail- 
road at  street  level.  Trains  then  stopped 
at  42nd  Street,  whence  the  cars  were 
drawn  by  horses  to  the  station  at  27th 
Street.  The  trains  usually  slowed  up  op- 
posite the  College  preparatory  to  stopping 
at  42nd  Street,  and  out-of-town  students  wrere  accustomed  to  jump  from  the 
cars  to  save  the  return  walk.  The  main  building  with  its  two  wings  fronted 
Forty-ninth  Street  from  a  slight  elevation.  It  had  a  long  portico  with 
massive  columns  shaded  by  fine  old  trees,  beneath  which  stood  a  few 
wooden  benches  for  the  use  of  the  weary  student.  At  one  end  stood  a 
small  circular  building,  the  Observatory,  commonly  known  as  the  Cow- 
house, and  on  Forty-ninth  Street  near  the  tracks  was  the  President's 
house.  The  first  story  of  the  east  wing  contained  the  Chapel,  the  second 
housed  the  Library.  The  only  access  to  either  was  a  narrow  iron  stair- 
case clinging  to  the  outer  wall.  Adjoining  the  Chapel  there  remained 
a  decrepit  building  which  had  been  occupied  as  a  door  and  blind  factory, 
later  the  first  home  of  the  School  of  Mines.  This  gave  rise  to  the  jest 
that  Columbia  was  the  home  of  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  and  the  blind;  to 
which  disabilities  a  fourth  was  added  when  the  University  occupied  the 
Bloomingdale  Insane  Asylum  at  Morningside.  In  1879  the  west  wing 
gave  place  to  the  new  College  building  covering  the  Madison  Avenue 
block;  new  buildings  were  soon  erected  for  the  School  of  Mines  a^ng 
50th  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue;  and  the  fine  Library  fronting  Forty- 
ninth  Street  eventually  filled  nearly  all  of  the  old  Campus,  until  shortly 
before  the  College  was  moved  away  the  original  stucco  building,  the 
"Maison  de  Punk,"  was  torn  down. 

The  old  Library  of  a  few  thousand  volumes,  housed  in  its  musty 
little  room  over  the  Chapel,  was  jealously  guarded  by  a  gaunt  clerical  cus- 
todian, who  looked  with  small  favor  on  any  student  having  the  temerity  to 
ask  for  the  use  of  a  volume.  Three  hours  constituted  a  Library  day.  All 
the  catalogues  and  records  were  painstakingly  written  out  by  his  own 


Thirty-one 


Columbia  of  Yesterday 


hand,  and  show  that  his  chief  clients  were  the  professors,  not  the  students. 
"With  the  opening  of  the  new  Library  these  archaic  conditions  immedi- 
ately gave  place  to  a  spirit  of  modernity.  New  systems  of  classification 
went  into  effect,  the  card  catalogue  made  its  appearance,  and  a  noble 
reading  room  with  every  facility  attracted  instead  of  repelling  the  stu- 
dents. 


The  last  few  years  at 
Forty-ninth  Street  were  a 
period  of  rapid  change,  and 
looking  toward  the  future. 
Many  of  the  landmarks  and 
picturesque  figures  of  a 
simpler  era  had  passed,  and 
with  them  the  centres  of 
interest  which  long  years 
of  familiarity  had  invested 
with  tradition  and  legend 
shared  in  common  by  many 
student  generations.  So  it 
is  that  the  most  vivid  and 
the  most  intimate  mem- 
ories of  the  old  College  are 
those  that  cluster  about  the 
early  and  the  middle  per- 
iod, and  that  those  who  re- 
call most  clearly  the  great 

figures  that  peopled  the  Campus  are  today  the  most  devoted  and  loyal 
supporters  of  the  College.  If  the  alumni  of  Morningside  in  their  later 
years  can  share  with  their  older  brothers  of  Forty-ninth  Street  the  same 
affectionate  memory  of  their  Alma  Mater  and  the  same  keen  interest  in 
her  life,  the  future  of  Columbia  College  is  safe. 


THE   FIRST  HAMILTON  HALL 


Thirty -two 


Engraved,  Printed,  and  Bound  by 
THE  READ-TAYLOR  PRESS 
Baltimore 


